There have been more than 100 private screenings of "The Invisible War"across the country since the documentary about sexual assault in the military premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. But perhaps the most important was for an audience of one.
In April, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panettawatched a DVD of the film on a plane. Two days later, he held a news conference to announce new rules on how the Pentagon would handle sex crimes. Most dramatically, he said that the military would move responsibility for handling sexual assault complaints higher in the chain of command so that victims are not in a position of reporting crimes to a direct commander (who may be a friend of the perpetrator, or may even be the perpetrator).
Military sexual assaults are adjudicated through military courts, a venue that many victims' advocates say deprives complainants of their due process. Panetta's chain of command chan ge, which went into effect immediately, does not alter that fact, but was still greeted by victims as a dramatic improvement in the process.
"The documentary reinforced for the secretary the problems associated with sexual assault in theU.S. military," Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said. "He's been squarely focused on taking decisive steps to prevent it, and when it does occur, to hold the perpetrators of sexual assault crimes accountable. This behavior has no place anywhere in our society, and certainly not in the military."
According to Defense Department data, some 20,000 violent sex crimes were committed in theU.S. military last year. In "The Invisible War," which arrives in theaters this weekend, director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering give that sobering statistic a face through interviews with survivors, DOD officials and legal experts.
DIck and Ziering had read journalistic accounts of sexual assault in the military that focused on one scandal or another, but were seeking to link the individual cases to explain the larger phenomenon. They found the subjects in their movie â€" most but not all of whom are women â€" by reaching out to victims' advocates and veterans' groups, and by using social media to contact survivors they found discussing the issue online.
Attorney Susan Burke put the filmmakers in touch with her client Ariana Klay, a married Naval Academy graduate and Iraq war veteran who said she was raped in 2010 by a Marine officer and his friend in her home near the Marine Barracks Washington base.
"[The filmmakers] were the first people in any kind of position of authority who understood the issue and wanted to hear the facts," said Klay, who was accused of misconduct and subject to recriminations on her base after reporting the rape. The Marines court-martialed one of her alleged assailants, but instead of rape, they convicted him of adultery and indecent language. The way the case was handled inspired both Klay and her husband to leave the military. "All I ever wanted was someone to look at my story with a fair perspective. They were compassionate people. They never made me feel exploited."
Dick and Ziering spoke with dozens of women with stories like Klay's, conducting many of the interviews on a grim, cross-country road trip. Along the way, the victims' stories had strikingly similar beats â€" first harassment, then rape and then a miscarriage of justice or worse, a targeting of the victim.
"The movie takes the responsibility and shame off of [the victims] and explains how this is a systemic problem," said Dick.
The filmmakers wanted their project to have a bipartisan appeal, so they sought input from both sides of the aisle in Washington â€" they conducted on-camera interviews with Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio) and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), both members of the House Armed Services Committee who have spoken out about the severity of the issue.
"We were very deliberate in not making it an anti-military film," Dick said. "We w anted to keep it very specific to this issue so that policymakers within the military were not threatened. If the military moves forward on this, it's better for the military and for society. It's really a national security issue. They're losing good soldiers and it's destroying unit cohesion."
As a filmmaker, Dick gravitates toward stories involving secrecy and hypocrisy. In "Twist of Faith," he explored sex abuse in the Catholic Church; in "This Film Is Not Yet Rated," he took on the Motion Picture Assn. of America; and in "Outrage," he examined closeted politicians who vote against gay rights. He and Ziering collaborated on "Outrage" as well as "Derrida," a documentary about the French philosopher.
They raised the $850,000 budget for "The Invisible War" through nonprofit grants and by selling broadcast rights with the goal of attracting a wide audience to their movie despite the difficult subject matter.
"As someone said to our publicist, 'Good luck with that rape film,'" said Ziering, of the challenge of drawing attention to such a sober topic. "We were concerned."
Though their movie hardly seemed like a crowd pleaser, it won the audience award at Sundance, and Dick and Ziering decided to capitalize on that support to reach the people in a position to help solve the problem.
"We thought, we have a very unique moment in history and a very powerful advocacy tool," said Ziering. "We should do something more than the conventional release."
Among the movie's executive producers are women with deep pockets, strong political connections and philanthropic impulses (some of whom came aboard after the filmmakers presented at a documentary event called Good Pitch in San Francisco last year). They include Nicole Boxer-Keegan, daughter of Sen. Barbara Boxer; Maria Cuomo Cole, sister of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo; Abigail Disney, granddaughter of Roy Disney; and Jennifer Siebel-Newsom, wife of California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom.
With the help of their producers, over the course of the spring, the filmmakers held screenings for influencers and policymakers.
"To anyone I met at Sundance I would say, 'Do you know someone who should see this film?'" said Ziering. "'Do you know someone who knows the wife of a general? We'll arrange a screening.' We had these small screenings of people who were one degree away from someone at the Pentagon or the White House. I think it was all those different pressures that led to Panetta seeing the film."
Dick and Ziering said Panetta's policy changes don't go far enough â€" they would like to see responsibility for investigating sexual assault in the military taken out of the chain of command entirely.
But for Klay, the news of the Defense Department's top official hearing and responding to her story is heartening.
"Look, nobody's really gonna read an 800-page report," Klay said. "The movie helps people understand the problem. It g ives me hope that Panetta watched and he seems to care. It will take years for this to change, but he's a good person to spearhead it. I believe he believes us."
rebecca.keegan@latimes.com
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