Film Analysis: The Hunting Ground

The Hunting Ground, directed by Kirby Dick, was released February 27, 2015. The documentary is filled with first-person testimonies of victimized undergraduate college students that push through the victim-blaming, cover-ups from large and small institutions, and harassment of their peers. When the documentary begins, viewers are greeted with YouTube videos of girls getting accepted into the college of their dreams. This film introduces institutional denial of sexual assault offences to keep the reputation of their school high, and how survivors are speaking up and taking action. The documentary The Hunting Ground effectively draws viewers in with its compelling stories with raw emotion, use of footage, and music that is played throughout the

College is happy and exciting and when the documentary first opens, the music that is being played in the background puts the viewer in a jovial state. One of the first songs that is played is “Anything Can Happen” by Ellie Goulding. This piece of music is placed brilliantly to portray college as an appealing place before the documentary reveals how horrifying it really is. After this, it goes right into more intense and dreary music. The producer of the film, Amy Ziering does a wonderful job of choosing the right song for each specific part in the documentary. The song that is playing during the closing credits of the film is “Till It Happens To You” by Lady Gaga. This piece of music is great because it’s germane to the documentary. The whole soundtrack does a wonderful job of being appropriate for the film. When a narration is being spoken about college parties, the background music has a techno vibe to it puts the audience in an atmosphere where they can imagine a college party in their mind. Involving the viewers is a positive thing this documentary includes. Grabbing the viewer’s attention is key, and one way The Hunting Ground achieved this is by having an amazing

While the girls were sharing their stories, little clips of pictures are played in a slideshow illustrating the events of where sexual assaults took place. From pictures of fraternity buildings to a bathroom sink personifies the viewers mental image. This makes the documentary more interesting by being able to see what may have happened. Being able to make a mental picture is more effective and helps keep the audience engaged. The documentary also features several segments of where the screen is all facts. Stating several facts where the viewer can read them off the screen and consume what they are saying has a huge impact. Some of the more memorable facts are the ones that include ratios of sexual assault cases to college students who were actually expelled because of it. The astonishing data reveals that what the documentary is preaching about is serious; this keeps the audience more attentive. Adding home videos that interviewees contributed to the documentary is another way the documentary includes more perspectives to personalize the videography. One can easily recognize that the video being shown is from the past by the video quality, and this proves that the stories being shared have truth to them. The element of videography in this film is phenomenal and offers insight and a wide variety of data that intrigues the viewer into continuing to watch