THE HUNTING GROUND is Released

NEW YORK, May 18, 2016 /PRNewswire-iReach/ The Hunting Ground Book:

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Skyhorse Publishing releases new companion book to the transformative documentary featured at the Sundance Film Festival and broadcast on CNN

As a new wave of activism is fueling fervent debate over sexual assault on college campuses, filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering have published a new book that both defends their transformative film and delves deeper.

The Hunting Ground: The Inside the Story of Sexual Assault on College Campuses, released by David Talbot's Hot Books imprint at Skyhorse Publishing, tells the story behind the transformative documentary and takes a broader look at the issue. It includes piercing essays by leading writers and thinkers, including an updated examination of the Florida State University rape case and what may have led the university to settle with the victim. It also includes the filmmakers' defense against a smear campaign by professors at Harvard Law School.

As a documentary, The Hunting Ground poignantly calls out universities on sexual assault policies that protect their brand instead of their students. It depicts a chilling climate that shields star athletes and silences victims. Because of the film, real change is underway. With more than one thousand screenings held on college campuses, and viewings at the White House, the Department of Justice and other seats of power, more people have become aware of the problem. Since the film's release, outrage by public figures such as Vice President Joe Biden are forcing public discussion and inspiring solutions. In New York, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo established a new bill aimed at stopping sexual assault on the state's college campuses. The University of California launched a mandatory comprehensive program for students at its colleges. Speaking at the 2016 Academy Awards ceremony, Biden called for changing the culture so that no abused woman or man is ashamed to speak out.

The book details how victims and their families have suffered brutal tolls due to institutional cover-ups, fraternity culture, and universities' stubborn defense of star athletes. Like the film, the book is a call to actionto students, to parents, and also to teachers. As writer and professor Roxane Gay states in her contributed essay, "Dispatch from Hunted Ground": "If we do nothing to try to address sexual violence on the campuses where we teach, we are, with our silence, issuing permits for sexual predators to roam freely on the hunting grounds of our campuses."

Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick are award-winning filmmakers whose documentary The Invisible Warabout rape in the militarysparked a similar national outcry, winning two Emmys, a Peabody, an Academy Award nomination, wide acclaim in the press, and guest appearances on such shows as Jon Stewart's Daily Show and Bill Maher's Real Time. The Hunting Ground, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival early in 2015, had its national television premiere on CNN that October.

Contsance Matthiessen (editor) is a writer and editor who lives in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, Mother Jones, The Nation, and other publications.

Contributing essays by Amy Herdy, Kamilah Washington, Roxane Gay, Andrew O'Hehir, D. Watkins, Christine Asquith, Jessica Luther, Alissa Ackerman and Caroline Heldman, Erin Ryan, Wendy Levy, Diane Rosenfeld, and Lisa Knisely.

Praise for the film:

"The Hunting Ground, a documentary shocker about rape on American college campuses, is a must-watch work of cine-activisim." Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

"Any parent sending a child off to college should consider this required viewing."

David Edelstein, New York Magazine

"A searing look at the failure of American universities to grapple successfully with campus rape." National Public Radio

"There is nothing easy about The Hunting Ground. It is a movie that enters your consciousness and doesn't leave." Wendy Levy, from her essay on the film included in the book.

The Hunting Ground: The Inside Story of Sexual Assault on American College Campuses

By Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick Hot Books (an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing), hardcover, also available as an eBook 188 pages On Sale: May 17, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-5107-0574-6 Price: $21.99

CONTACT: Charlie Lyons

clyons@skyhorsepublishing.com

(212) 643-6816 x 286

Media Contact: Charlie Lyons, Skyhorse Publishing, 212-643-6816 x 286, clyons@skyhorsepublishing.com

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SOURCE Skyhorse Publishing

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