The Invisible War | |
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Directed by | Kirby Dick |
Written by | Kirby Dick |
Produced by | Amy Ziering Tanner King Barklow |
Cinematography | Thaddeus Wadleigh Kirsten Johnson |
Edited by | Douglas Blush Derek Boonstra |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Cinedigm Docurama Films |
Release dates |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $71,968 [1] |
The Invisible War is a 2012 American documentary film written and directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering and Tanner King Barklow about sexual assault in the United States military. It premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the U.S. Documentary Audience Award. [2] The film has been lauded by advocates, lawmakers, and journalists for its influence on government policies to reduce the prevalence of rape in the armed forces. [3]
The Invisible War is the recipient of a Peabody Award and Emmy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and Outstanding Investigative Journalism. [4] [5] It was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 85th Academy Awards. [6]
In 2010, 108,121 veterans screened positive for military sexual trauma, and 68,379 had at least one Veterans Health Administration outpatient visit for related conditions. Also in 2010, The Department of Defense processed reports of 3,198 new assaults but estimated the actual number of assaults to be closer to 19,000. However, these reports resulted in convictions against only 244 perpetrators. [7]
The Invisible War features interviews with veterans from multiple branches of the United States Armed Forces who recount the events surrounding their assaults. Their stories show many common themes, such as the lack of recourse to an impartial justice system, reprisals against survivors instead of against perpetrators, the absence of adequate emotional and physical care for survivors, the unhindered advancement of perpetrators' careers, and the forced expulsion of survivors from service.
Interspersed with these first person testimonies are interviews with advocates, journalists, mental health professionals, active duty and retired generals, Department of Defense officials, and members of the military justice system. The film also includes footage, often shot by the veterans themselves, which documents their lives and continuing struggles in the aftermath of their assaults.
In the film's most prominent narrative, Coast Guard veteran Seaman Kori Cioca struggles to earn benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay for the many medical difficulties that have resulted from her rape. With the help of attorney Susan L. Burke, Cioca, along with other survivors featured in the film, brings Cioca v. Rumsfeld , a civil suit against the Department of Defense alleging a failure to adequately address sexual assault within the military.
Other past incidents of sexual abuse recounted in the film include the 1991 Navy Tailhook scandal, the 1996 Army Aberdeen scandal, and the 2003 Air Force Academy scandal. The Invisible War uses these examples to argue that the military has consistently made empty promises to address its high rate of sexual assault. These stories culminate with an examination of the previously unreported [8] culture of sexual harassment and sexual assault at the prestigious Marine Barracks Washington.
The survivors and advocates featured in the film call for changes to the way the military handles sexual assault, such as shifting prosecution away from unit commanders, who often are either friends with assailants or are assailants themselves.
People interviewed in The Invisible War include:
Following its release, The Invisible War was heralded for exposing a culture of widespread sexual harassment and sexual assault at Marine Barracks Washington. [8] [9] [10] In March 2012, eight women, including two who appeared in the film, filed suit against military leaders for maintaining an environment that tolerates rapists while silencing survivors. [11]
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta viewed the film on April 14, 2012. [12] [13] On April 16, 2012, Secretary Panetta issued a directive ordering all sexual assault cases to be handled by senior officers at the rank of colonel or higher, which effectively ended the practice of commanders adjudicating these cases from within their own units. [14] In his 2014 memoir Worthy Fights, Panetta states that watching The Invisible War was one of the main factors that influenced him to take action on the issue of sexual assault in the military. [15]
On June 25, 2012, the Marine Corps unveiled a new plan to combat sexual assault. Marine Corps Commandant General James F. Amos met with all non-deployed Marine generals to review the new procedures, which seek to discourage unsafe environments while increasing reporting. [16] [17] In November 2012 Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh met with all active wing commanders to screen the film and discuss the problem of rape in the military. [18] The film's distributor estimates that 235,000 service members viewed The Invisible War in 2012. [18]
On January 4, 2013, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013. This law included many improvements to the military's handling of sexual assault cases, such as barring individuals with felony sex abuse convictions from receiving enlistment waivers, forming special victims units to investigate and prosecute sexual assault cases, and installing new policies to prevent professional retaliation against assault survivors. [19]
According to The New York Times , the film "has been credited with both persuading more women to come forward to report abuse and with forcing the military to deal more openly with the problem." [20] The Times also notes that the film helped spur the House Armed Services Committee to hold a January 23, 2013, hearing on sexual assault in the military. [21] During the hearing, Rep. Mike Turner acknowledged the film for illustrating the hostility faced by many survivors who speak up or seek help. [22] The Invisible War was again discussed during a Senate subcommittee hearing on March 13, 2013, in which lawmakers and military officials described the film's impact on military training programs dealing with sexual assault. [23]
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand credits The Invisible War with inspiring her to create legislation to reduce sexual assault in the military. In her 2014 memoir Off the Sidelines, Gillibrand writes, "Nothing in my life...prepared me for what I saw in that film.... Whatever it took, I had to help bring justice to these survivors, and I needed to work to prevent future crimes." [24] In November 2013, Gillibrand introduced the Military Justice Improvement Act, which would require military sexual assault cases to be handled by an independent judiciary body. [25] In March 2014 the bill failed to secure enough votes to break a filibuster. [26]
The Invisible War received widespread acclaim from critics. The Invisible War has an approval rating of 99% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 72 reviews, and an average rating of 8.20/10. The website's critical consensus states, "The Invisible War is a vital and frank expose on sexual assault in the U.S. military, shot by master filmmaker Kirby Dick (This Film is Not Yet Rated)". [27] It also has a score of 75 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [28] At the end of 2012, it held a 100% Fresh rating from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, which also listed it as the #1 film of the year. [29]
The film appeared on numerous year-end best lists, including in The New York Times , Time , and the National Board of Review. [30] [31] [32] The Chicago Film Critics Association named it the Best Documentary of 2012. [33]
The Christian Science Monitor's Peter Rainer observed that the film broke new ground, as it "was the first to really explore the issue of rape in the military" and that "the fact that this subject has taken so long to achieve full-scale exposure was itself symptomatic of the problem." He selected it as one of the top ten films of the year. [34] [35]
The Boston Globe's Christopher Wallenberg noted that The Invisible War "achieved a rare feat for a documentary by breaking a national news story: The alleged coverup of incidents of sexual assault and harassment at the prestigious Marine Barracks Washington." Other critics also focused on the film's investigative journalism, [36] [37] including A. O. Scott, who wrote in The New York Times that Dick is "one of the indispensable muckrakers of American cinema, zeroing in on frequently painful stories about how power functions in the absence or failure of accountability." [38]
Jonathan Hahn of the Los Angeles Review of Books wrote, "There are some works of writing or painting, speech, or film that do more than just stand as great works of art. They change things. They put before us something fundamentally wrong with the world — with the society we take for granted, with the institutions on which we depend and that in turn depend on us — and demand change. The Invisible War belongs in that pantheon, and is easily one of the most important films of the year." [39]
Two survivors and one service provider who appear in The Invisible War criticized the filmmakers for their fleeting focus on male victims. Director Kirby Dick responded, saying that he is empathetic toward their concerns, but felt that focusing on women would serve as the best "entry point" for the discussion. [40]
Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
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2012 | Sundance Film Festival [41] [42] | Audience Award for Best Documentary | Kirby Dick | Won |
Human Rights Watch Film Festival [43] | Nestor Almendros Award for Courage in Filmmaking | Won | ||
Dallas International Film Festival [44] | Silver Heart Humanitarian Award | Won | ||
Seattle International Film Festival [45] | Audience Award for Best Documentary | Kirby Dick | Won | |
Provincetown International Film Festival [46] | Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature | Won | ||
DocuWest International Documentary Film Festival [47] | Best of Festival | Won | ||
Peace Over Violence Awards [48] | Award for Advocacy | Won | ||
International Documentary Association [49] | Best Feature | Kirby Dick | Nominated | |
2013 | Independent Spirit Awards [50] | Best Documentary | Kirby Dick, Tanner King Barklow, Amy Ziering | Won |
WGA Awards [51] | Best Documentary Screenplay | Kirby Dick | Nominated | |
Academy Awards [6] | Best Documentary Feature | Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering | Nominated | |
DGA Awards [52] | Documentary Directing | Kirby Dick | Nominated | |
Ridenhour Prize [53] | Documentary Film | Won | ||
Peabody Awards [5] | Won | |||
Impact Awards [54] | Jury Special Commendation | Won | ||
2014 | Emmy Awards [4] | Best Documentary Feature | Won | |
Outstanding Investigative Journalism – Long Form | Won | |||
Comfort women were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term comfort women is a translation of the Japanese ianfu, a euphemism that literally means "comforting, consoling woman". During World War II, Japanese troops forced hundreds of thousands of women from Australia, Burma, China, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, East Timor, New Guinea and other countries into sexual enslavement for Japanese troops; however, the majority of the women were from Korea. Many women died due to brutal mistreatment and sustained physical and emotional distress. After the war, Japan denied the existence of comfort women, refusing to provide an apology or appropriate restitution, which damaged Japan's reputation in Asia for decades. Only in the 1990s did the Japanese government begin to officially apologize and offer compensation. However, apologies from Japanese officials have been criticized as insincere, and Japanese government officials have continued to deny the existence of comfort women.
Sexual assault in the United States armed forces is an ongoing issue which has received extensive media coverage in the past. A 2012 Pentagon survey found that approximately 26,000 women and men were sexually assaulted that year; of those, only 3,374 cases were reported. In 2013, a new Pentagon report found that 5,061 troops reported cases of assault. Of the reported cases, only 484 cases went to trial; 376 resulted in convictions. Another investigation found that one in five women in the United States Air Force who were sexually assaulted by service members reported it, for one in 15 men.
Kirby Bryan Dick is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best known for directing documentary films. He received Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary Feature for directing Twist of Faith (2005) and The Invisible War (2012). He has also received numerous awards from film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival.
As defined by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, military sexual trauma (MST) are experiences of sexual assault, or repeated threatening sexual harassment that occurred while a person was in the United States Armed Forces.
Rape during the Bosnian War was a policy of mass systemic violence targeted against women. While men from all ethnic groups committed rape, the vast majority of rapes were perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces of the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS) and Serb paramilitary units, who used rape as an instrument of terror and a key tactic in their programme of ethnic cleansing. Estimates of the number of women raped during the war range between 10,000 and 50,000. Accurate numbers are difficult to establish and it is believed that the number of unreported cases is much higher than reported ones.
Helen Benedict is an American novelist and journalist, best known for her writings on social injustice, the Iraq War and most recently, refugees.
Paula Coughlin is a former lieutenant and naval aviator in the United States Navy. She is a victim who played a role in opening investigations into what was known as the Tailhook scandal.
Amy Ziering is an American film producer and director. Mostly known for her work in documentary films, she is a regular collaborator of director Kirby Dick; they co-directed 2002's Derrida and 2020's On the Record, with Ziering also producing several of Dick's films.
Annie Elizabeth Clark is a women's rights and civil rights activist in the United States. She was one of the lead complainants of the 2013 Title IX and Clery Act charges lodged against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, claiming that the institution violated the law by the way they handled sexual assault complaints. Clark and Andrea Pino, then a fellow UNC student and also a victim of sexual assault, launched a nationwide campaign to use Title IX complaints to force U.S. universities to address sexual assault and related problems more aggressively. Clark is co-founder with Pino of End Rape on Campus, an advocacy group for victims of campus sexual assault.
Andrea Lynn Pino (born February 15, 1992) is an American women's rights and civil rights activist, author, and a public scholar on issues of global gender based violence, media framing of violence, gender and sexuality, and narratives of survivorhood. She is the queer daughter of Cuban refugees and has stated that she is a survivor of sexual assault.
During the first and second conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), all armed parties to the conflict carried out a policy of genocidal rape, with the primary purpose being the total destruction of communities and families. Such was the violence directed at and carried out towards women that Human Rights Watch (HRW) described it as "a war within a war". HRW has reported that as of March 2013, civil conflict had reignited when the militia, March 23 Movement (M23), resumed hostilities following a ceasefire.
The Hunting Ground is a 2015 American documentary film about the incidence of sexual assault on college campuses in the United States and the reported failure of college administrations to deal with it adequately. Written and directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering, it premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The film was released on February 27, 2015, an edited version aired on CNN on November 22, 2015, and was released on DVD the week of December 1, 2015. It was released on Netflix in March 2016. Lady Gaga recorded an original song, "Til It Happens to You," for the film, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
"Til It Happens to You" is a song produced and performed by American singer Lady Gaga. She co-wrote the song with Diane Warren for the 2015 documentary film The Hunting Ground, which deals with campus rape in the United States. The song had leaked onto the Internet through an unofficial recording made at the film's premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. It was later released by Interscope Records to digital retailers on September 18, 2015. The director and producer of the film had looked for someone influential to write a song for it, and music supervisor Bonnie Greenberg contacted Warren, who was interested. She wrote the song with Gaga and producer Nile Rodgers accompanied them during the recording, providing his suggestions.
Audrie & Daisy is an American 2016 documentary film about two cases of rape of teenage American girls, in 2011 and 2012.
Carri Leigh Goodwin enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 2007 at the age of 18. Goodwin from Alliance, Ohio and was the daughter of a Marine. She experienced rape during her service by a Marine who had been accused of another rape at Camp Pendleton in 2006. Goodwin reported the rape to her commander. Goodwin was "bullied by her command for reporting the rape." The accused Marine remained on duty but Goodwin was discharged with personality disorder.
Sil Lai Abrams is a domestic violence awareness activist and National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) award-winning writer. Abrams is a sought after speaker on sexual assault, domestic violence, race, and depictions of women of color in the media and has spoken at over 300 organizations and universities around the United States. She regularly provides television commentary on gender violence and has been profiled in numerous magazines, including The Hollywood Reporter, EBONY, Redbook, Modern Woman, and ESSENCE. The Root praised Abrams for her use of “social media to protest the narrative that Black women’s realities can be defined by dysfunctional entertainment”, and she has served on the Board of Directors for two of the nation’s largest victim services nonprofit organizations, Safe Horizon and the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Sexual harassment in the military is unwanted sexual behaviour experienced as threatening, offensive, or otherwise upsetting, which occurs in a military setting.
On the Record is a 2020 American documentary film directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering. It centers on allegations of sexual abuse and harassment against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. Executive producer Oprah Winfrey publicly withdrew from the film shortly before it was released, citing "creative differences", severing a production deal with Apple TV+. The film premiered at Sundance on January 25, 2020, and was acquired by HBO Max, which released it digitally on May 27, 2020.
Fork Films was an American film production and television production company founded in 2007, by Abigail Disney and Gini Reticker. The company primarily produced documentary films focusing on social issues, and select narrative films.
Rape, among other acts of wartime sexual violence, was frequently committed against female Vietnamese civilians during the Vietnam War. It was an aspect of the various human rights abuses perpetrated by the United States and South Korea, as well as by local Vietnamese combatants. According to American political scientist Elisabeth Jean Wood, the sexual violation of women by American military personnel was tolerated by their commanders. American professor Gina Marie Weaver stated that not only were documented crimes against Vietnamese women by American soldiers ignored during the international legal discourse that occurred immediately after the conflict, but modern feminists and other anti-war rape campaigners, as well as historians, have continued to dismiss them.