'The Hunting Ground' documentary returns to campus

“The Hunting Ground,” a documentary released earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, will be screened on campus tonight. The documentary is a look at sexual assault and its effects on college campuses, including UNC.

REACT to FILM’s UNC chapter and Carolina’s Roundtable collaborated to organize the event.

“This film doesn’t actually just focus on the rapes committed,” said Courtney Aucoin, president of UNC’s REACT to FILM.

“It actually focuses on the cover-ups and the scandals that accompany these sexual assault cases.”

The documentary is returning for its second time at UNC.

“UNC is one of the schools that is predominantly featured in the film,” documentary subject and UNC alumna Andrea Pino said.

After she was sexually assaulted as a junior at UNC, Pino, along with three other women, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights claiming UNC violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

“That is not necessarily saying that UNC has a worse problem than any other institution in the country, but I think it is important to note that a school like UNC has a problem like sexual assault.”

Pino and Sofie Karasek, survivors featured in the film, will attend the screening and lead a discussion panel to follow. Karasek attended the University of California, Berkeley.

“Every time I come back to UNC I am kind of hopeful that things have changed,” Pino said.

“And I think that while some things have moved in the right direction, I still want to expect more from UNC and I keep hearing things that are indicative that there are still a few things that need to be changed.”

Aucoin said the panel is meant to allow students to interact with survivors from the film, who were recently college students themselves, in an open discussion.

Pino said she hopes the discussion following the film delves deeper than talking just about the film.

“I’ve actually been encouraging those that are hosting us to reach out to the LGBTQ Center so that we have someone to really talk about the state of survivors on campus that are queer and how much support they’re actually getting,” Pino said.

First-year Kiralina Soare plans to attend the screening and said she thinks it is a good way to raise the topic of sexual violence on campus.

“I think it’s an issue not a lot of people pay attention to, except for all the young girls who actually have to live with it,” Soare said.

“Like all my female friends, we’re all really aware of this kind of thing. We call each other when we are walking home or we use SafeWalk or something, but all of my guy friends are like, ‘that’s not a real problem.’”

Aucoin said she hopes the film and the panel discussion will allow students to see the progress made by schools like UNC to protect students who have faced sexual assault.

“Perhaps if people in the audience have gone through similar things they’ll see how lucky they are that UNC has improved, how lucky they are to be on a campus that will take action, or they won’t feel so alone if they are having problems seeking action,” Aucoin said.

@mariaproko

university@dailytarheel.com