The Hunting Ground
By: Bectzaida Roman
Thesis:
In the documentary " The Hunting Ground", through the elements of pathos, personal interviews, and statistics show what truly happens to those girls who get sexually assaulted on college campus, and that colleges should seek greater consequences and actually do something about the reports they get, they shouldn't hide it they should be held responsible for it.
Purpose:
The overall purpose of the documentary " The Hunting Ground", is to show the truth about sexual assaults that happen on college campus and to show that they never seem to do anything or take any sexual assault serious but yet college presidents claim this, "95 % of college presidents say institutions handle sexual assault reports "appropriately" ( Gallup Survey 2014). What the director really wants is to encourage other females to speak up about the truth. I think the director was successful in achieving that purpose using the following elements, personal interviews, pathos, and statistics.
Personal Interviews
Kamilah Willingham
Kamilah is just one out of the many girls that were raped on college campus. She assisted to Harvard Law School. The director chose the right option by having Kamilah talk about her sexual assault since it makes the rest of the audience or other girls that were sexually assaulted accept what happened to them and speak up about it so that those rapists have consequences and to stop them from sexually assaulting another women.
Andrea Pino & Annie Clark
Another great element is the interview of Andrea and Annie. If it weren't for them im sure the director would of not been able to create this documentary. Andrea and Annie are great because they talk about what happened to them and the documentary shows how hard it was for them. But they did not fall down they decided to do something about all those rapes that happen on campus, and that is very encouraging so that other women also speak up.
Melinda Manning
It is also quite interesting to see Melinda Manning speak in the documentary since she is the dean at UNC Chapel Hill. Melinda talks about how she had students tell her that they were sexually assaulted and she didn't know what to do because the college always said to not let anybody else know. But you can really see that if it was up to Melinda she would do anything to help the victims. In a sense she creates or shows that victims of sexual assaults should report their rape to the police so that the rapist don't just get off the hook.
Pathos
Music Being Played
The music being played I think has a huge impact on the audience. The reason the music touches the audience is because they play the music when the students will graduate and they also put music when the victims are telling their story and crying. This helps the purpose of the documentary because we all know its hard for them to speak up.
Girls crying
Everyone knows that being sexually assaulted is not easy. When the girls get to the part where they tell what happened to them and how it happened they all start crying. This touches the audiences feelings because im sure that no parent would like their children get sexually assaulted, and more important for them not to say anything about it to their own parents or even make a police report. The pathos in this helped because other victims that were sexually assaulted can also connect to them and that might encourage them to speak up.
Erica's Story
Overall, I found Erica's story the most touching. Seeing her cry made me want to cry. I felt so mad hearing everything that happened with her case. It is unfair for a men to rape a women against her will she said no he should of stopped. It touched my feelings because if I were put in her shoes I would not like it. To know that my rapist had no consequences just because he is a football star sickens me. What makes it even worst is to know that the state attorney Willie Meggs claims that he didn't have enough evidence to put any charges or take him to jail, im sure that if it was his daughter he would do anything. That is why I think that Erica's story touched the feelings of others.
Statisticts
The third element that the director used in " The Hunting Ground" is statistics. In the documentary there was many statistics given. For example " 88% of women sexually assaulted on campus do not report." It is shocking to see how many women do not report but they do it because they are afraid of being judged or they believe that the college will not do anything. Another stat that I found interesting was the following, " In 2012, 45% of colleges reported zero sexual assaults." We all know that their had to be some sexual assaults but of course the colleges will never be truthful because they want to keep getting peoples money by going to their college. Lastly " Repeat offenders commit an average of six or more acts of sexual assaults." The reason to which why the keep doing it is because they know that they will not have any consequences. These statistics help the documentary because it shows the audience why their needs to be something else done. It shows the reality of the girls that are sexually assaulted.
Conclusion
Overall after watching the film " The Hunting Ground", I feel a more stronger view about girls who get sexually assaulted on college campus. I would always think of the girls who got sexually assaulted but never imagined that so many girls got sexually assaulted on college campus. This documentary has impacted me because I would never like to see anybody get sexually assaulted most importantly not my daughter. It also made me a little scared to go off to college and know that one out of every four girls get sexually assaulted while in college.