Campus rape is a difficult issue, for all kinds of reasons—victims sometimes have spotty memories as a result of alcohol consumption or because they were drugged against their will; there may not witnesses; sometimes it boils down to a he-said/she-said situation; and pursuing charges can be even more traumatizing for a victim. That shouldn't be read as an excuse to ignore claims of rape, but as an acknowledgment of the difficulty of proving it in a court of law. (And it's not a new issue; more than a decade ago, contributor Vicki Hart took an in-depth look at the issue for the Weekly.) Rolling Stone's recent disgraceful reporting on the topic didn't help matters any, either.

Filmmaker Kirby Dick has dug into the topic with The Hunting Ground, which opens tonight at the Loft Cinema. Dick will be there both tonight and tomorrow to introduce the film at the 7 p.m. screenings. Here's the Loft's description:

From acclaimed writer/director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering, the filmmaking team behind the Oscar-nominated documentary The Invisible War, comes The Hunting Ground, a piercing, monumental exposé of rape culture on campuses, poised to light a fire under a national debate. In a tour de force of verité footage, expert insights, and first-person testimonies, the film follows undergraduate rape survivors pursuing both their education and justice, despite ongoing harassment and the devastating toll on them and their families. Scrutinizing the gamut of elite Ivies, state universities, and small colleges, filmmakers Dick and Ziering reveal an endemic system of institutional cover-ups, rationalizations, victim-blaming, and denial that creates perfect storm conditions for predators to prey with impunity. Meanwhile, the film captures mavericks Andrea Pino and Annie Clark, two survivors who are taking matters into their own hands —ingeniously employing Title IX legal strategy to fight back and sharing their knowledge among a growing, unstoppable network of young women who will no longer be silent.

More Information about the film and showtimes can be found here.