By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Florida State President Makes Statement On THE HUNTING GROUND; Filmmaker Kirby Dick Replies

Posted Wednesday, March 4th, 2015 - Comments Off on Florida State President Makes Statement On THE HUNTING GROUND; Filmmaker Kirby Dick Replies
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FSU President issued a statement about THE HUNTING GROUND – the link appears on FSU’s home page – see below:

http://titleix.fsu.edu/statements/response-to-documentary-on-sexual-assault/

STATEMENTS

February 27, 2015

Dear Friends,

We want to make you aware that “The Hunting Ground,” a film about campus sexual assaults that debuted in Los Angeles and New York City Thursday, is seriously lacking in credibility and presents a one-sided view of Florida State’s actions in the Jameis Winston case.

The filmmakers interviewed Erica Kinsman, but no one representing Florida State. This provides the viewing public with an incomplete and erroneous view of what the University did to investigate Ms. Kinsman’s allegations. This distorted presentation is all the more egregious in light of the fact Ms. Kinsman has filed a lawsuit against the University over the case.

The first time the University was contacted by the filmmakers was December 18 — nearly three months after they had submitted the film to the Sundance Film Festival and it was scheduled for its artistic premiere. They sent a generic email asking for comment about sexual assault but failed to disclose that FSU would be a target of criticism and withheld the fact that Ms. Kinsman would be going public with her version of the story.

Had FSU been given the opportunity to reply, we would have made it clear the University went to extraordinary lengths to support Ms. Kinsman and to initiate an impartial, independent Title IX investigation of her allegations against Mr. Winston. Our efforts included arranging an independent investigation by a former Florida Supreme Court justice. He reviewed more than 1,000 pages of documents and took testimony from Mr. Winston, Ms. Kinsman and 10 witnesses before ruling there was not a preponderance of evidence to support her allegations. This was not mentioned in the film, although it received ample press coverage.

Alerted to these serious omissions, FSU this week lodged a formal protest with the film’s production company, Radius-TWC, which declined to make the film available although it had already been screened in January at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and just last week at a student film festival.

Florida State advocates shining a bright light on the subject of sexual assault on college campuses. We want to reassure you that FSU takes all allegations of sexual assault seriously — as it did in this case — and works tirelessly through the Victim Advocate Program to support victims and help them recover. This includes informing victims about all of their options in deciding whether to initiate criminal or student conduct charges under Title IX. We remain serious about our commitment to ensure the safety and well-being of all of our students, particularly victims of sexual assault.

We also take seriously the need for journalists to observe basic ethics and standards. “The Hunting Ground” fails to meet those standards and, as a result, fails to present balanced and responsible coverage of this very important issue.

Sincerely,

John Thrasher
President

In response, THE HUNTING GROUND director Kirby Dick issued the following:

“The university had months to respond to the letter we sent President Thrasher in which we wrote that our film would examine how FSU was dealing with issues they had encountered regarding sexual assault and asking how it was responding to the crisis.  

This was a similar correspondence — in content and timing — that all colleges and universities featured in the film received.  We didn’t get a response until last week – three days before our film opened in theaters and more than two months after we first sent the letter.  Worth noting, we kept the film open until February 19th in the hopes that President Thrasher and other presidents would come forward.  It’s unfortunate because we would have welcomed including President Thrasher or another FSU official in the film. 

Beyond the university itself, we also contacted Jameis Winston’s attorney, the Tallahassee Police Department and Investigator Angulo.  Representatives from the Tallahassee Police and Investigator Angulo declined to be interviewed.  Neither Winston nor his attorney returned our multiple queries.

In addition, we interviewed a total of seven FSU sexual assault survivors whose stories contain common themes: 

1) Discouragement from reporting

2) Insensitive treatment by FSU officials and police

3) Blame for their own assault

Rather than attack the messenger, President Thrasher should show leadership and focus on the problem that has existed on his campus for decades.”

Kirby Dick

Director, THE HUNTING GROUND

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon