The Hunting Ground.
Madman is launching its impact campaign for documentary The Hunting Ground with the unveiling of The Hunting Ground Australia Project, a national student survey on sexual assault and sexual harassment.
The Hunting Ground is directed by Kirby Dick and explores the issue of sexual assault on US University campuses; brought roaring back to the headlines most recently by the Nate Parker saga. Dick's 2012 doc, The Invisible War, investigated the epidemic of rape within the US military.
“The Hunting Ground Australia Project is proud and excited that the funding raised and partnerships developed though Good Pitch2 Australia has instigated this landmark survey,” said Allison Henry, the project's Campaign Director.
The Hunting Ground was one of six documentary films selected for the 2015 Good Pitch2 Australia at the Sydney Opera House.
“A year ago when we started this project we immediately recognised the dearth of data available around the incidence of sexual violence in Australian universities. A key element of our five-point strategy was to instigate this survey by providing seed funding and other support to the Australian Human Rights Centre at UNSW and the Australian Human Rights Commission."
“We welcome Vice-Chancellor’s and Universities Australia’s subsequent strong support and significant financial commitment. We are looking forward to the implementation of the national survey by the Australian Human Rights Commission, and ultimately to better understanding what the situation is here in Australia.”
When IF spoke to impact producer Anna Kaplan (who also worked on That Sugar Film) earlier in the year, she described a long-term, "proactive, preventative campaign", partnering with universities to screen The Hunting Ground on campuses across Australia. 29 of Australia's 39 universities have already hosted screenings.
“We have been encouraged by the positive and constructive response from many universities to tackling sexual violence on their campuses, and look forward to continuing progress as the survey is implemented and analysed”, said Henry.
The full list of campus screenings can be found here.