“The real injustice at the heart of this issue is that these Harvard Law professors have been completely absent regarding the hundreds, or even thousands, of assaults that have been happening on their campus for decades that have not been investigated or appropriately adjudicated,” the filmmakers wrote.Kirby Dick’s The Hunting Ground, a documentary about rape on college campuses, opens with a montage sequence where various young women react with unfettered joy over being accepted to the college of their choice. Department of Education determined that the appeal process in the case violated Title IX. But Harvard law professors overturned that ruling during the student's appeal. In an email, the filmmakers, Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, noted that, in 2011, the Harvard Law Administrative Board found Winston responsible of engaging in sexual misconduct with the alleged victim while she was unconscious.
The Harvard professors referenced that article in their statement Wednesday. Earlier this year, they posted a detailed fact page on the film's website after Slate published an article questioning some of the documentary's claims. This is not the first time the filmmakers have had to defend The Hunting Ground against critics. I can however say that the signatories of the press release represent only a minority of the faculty.” “I am bound by the principles of confidentiality under which the hearing was conducted, so I cannot say anything about the substance of the case.
“I fully support the Hunting Ground film, which is all about ending the silencing of survivors,” she said. Rosenfeld was involved in Winston's disciplinary proceedings. Propaganda should not be allowed to erase this just outcome.”ĭiane Rosenfeld, a Harvard law lecturer who did not sign Wednesday's statement, said she disagrees with her colleagues and agrees with documentary's findings. Winston was finally vindicated by the law school and by the judicial proceedings, and allowed to continue his career at the law school and beyond. Winston was guilty of any sexual assault offense at all. Nor was any body vested with final decision-making authority persuaded that Mr.
#Watch the hunting ground online trial
“No evidence whatsoever was introduced at trial that he was the one responsible for the inebriated state of the women who are portrayed in the film as his victims. Winston used force, nor were there even any charges that he used force,” the faculty wrote. On Wednesday, a week before the documentary is set to air on CNN, the Harvard professors released a lengthy statement criticizing the film's portrayal of the accused student's case. That section of the film focuses on an assault allegedly committed by a law student there named Brandon Winston. Their story, in which they become activists who travel around the country to inspire other victims to speak out and use the gender discrimination law Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to hold colleges accountable, provides the film’s narrative arc.Īlong the way, the documentary takes frequent detours to call out a number of other institutions, including Harvard, for mishandling or ignoring the issue. It examines the issue of campus sexual assault, in particular at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where the documentary’s two primary subjects were students. The film, released theatrically earlier this year, received critical acclaim and will air on CNN next week. The documentary The Hunting Ground provides “a seriously false picture both of the general sexual assault phenomenon at universities” and of a case involving Harvard University students, 19 Harvard law professors said in a statement Wednesday.