‘Hunting Ground,’ film on sexual assault will show Thursday night

After traveling around the country to promote “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary addressing sexual assault on college campuses, UNC alumnae Andrea Pino and Annie Clark are coming back to campus tonight.

Clark, Pino and Chancellor Carol Folt will answer questions at the film screening in Carroll Hall at 6 p.m.

“You can be 20 years old and take out a 200-year-old university,” Pino said.

Pino said the movie is a holistic project that shows how common sexual assault is on campuses across the nation. For the project, filmmakers interviewed about 100 survivors from schools across the country.

“I think for a long time, for students, activists, faculties, it’s been very hard to be able to convey just how rampant this problem is,” she said.

Taylor Lammert, co-chairman of Carolina Advocating for Gender Equality, said he watched the movie and received both positive and negative messages.

“I think there is a sense of horror and injustice when you see, one, trauma of the initial assault and the trauma of not receiving adequate support afterward,” Lammert said.

Lammert said he can also see a degree of hope, as Pino and Clark are moving things forward.

Claire McLaughlin, co-chairwoman of Carolina Advocating for Gender Equality, said the organization partnered with other groups to bring this documentary to campus and spur discussion and action.

“Annie and Andrea provided a great example that student accountability to the administration is really what initiated a lot of reform around Title IX,” she said. “So I think if we can generate a little bit more energy on that by screening the film, it will be an ideal outcome.”

Lammert said Folt offered to be one of the panelists because she said this is something that matters to her.

“I am really happy that she’s coming,” he said. “That shows that the administration does care.”

Lammert said he thinks Folt might not be able to say things as bluntly as Pino and Clark do because she needs to promote the University’s image.

“There’s something in the film that addresses how universities can’t be the first university to address that rape on campus is a massive problem,” he said. “Because to admit that (it) occurs on your campus first is then to invite all of the criticism onto you.”

Pino said she has seen some changes in UNC’s policy on handling sexual assault since she filed the Title IX complaint.

“Unfortunately, there are complaints that UNC has been hiring people to deal specifically with sexual assaults, but I think that’s a correct direction,” she said.

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