STARVING THE BEAST: Mims and Banowsky's smart, timely and very important documentary

Is higher education at America's public universities soon to become a "private" kind of thing?  As in: even higher tuition fees, less and less public funding, and more and more nasty disruption and fake reform from trash-talking (and worse-acting) Republicans bent on the destruction of any kind of government that would actually provide for the people it governs? According to the new, must-see documentary STARVING THE BEAST, the answer is a decided "yes" -- unless the public that most needs to make use the of that education is able to wrest control back from the purveyors of this "new business model" for our universities.

As written, directed, filmed and edited by Steve Mims, shown at right, who earlier co-directed that exceptional documentary, Incendiary, and produced by Bill Banowsky (below), the documentary is actually one of the more intelligent I've seen in its refusal to spoon-feed us a bunch of talking points and sound bites. Instead, the filmmakers let us slowly see and understand what is going on here by listening hard and watching well, then putting together all the pieces Mims provides in order to understand the bigger picture, as well as the smaller details that make up that picture.

Mims begins with an angry speech by James Carville (shown below, and no hero of mine: see Our Brand Is Crisis) about what's happening at LSU, but there so much going on here that the filmmaker then offers up some history, including how the private sector began encroaching upon the public, and the results of all this in various locations and universities. Those locations are often, no surprise, in America's south and southwest (Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Texas). But not always: We get a good dose of what Scott Walker did and wants to continue doing in and to Wisconsin.

We also see what Rick Perry and Bobby Jindal have in mind for higher education in Texas and Louisiana. Funny how all three would-be Presidential candidates have long since been unmasked for the lying pikers they are. We even get a dose of another would-be, Marco Rubio, who sings the praises of the Investing in Student Success Act -- surely one of the worst ideas those die-hard/kill-the-government idiots have yet concocted. Wait until you hear its particulars: This lunatic piece of if-only lawmaking (along with another bit of nonsense called The HERO Act) sounds like something out of the darkest, dystopian sci-fi film.

How did all this come about? Listen and learn of Jeff Sandefer and his Seven Solutions, or Wallace Hall and the Kick-Ass Regents. And, yes, Grover Norquist rears his ugly, no-more-taxes head once again. The fix is in by the one per cent to "starve" public higher education of funding. Sure, times are hard (except for the wealthy) but that is no excuse for so many states to abdicate their responsibility over higher education.

There is so much impressive information here -- including talking head interviews, copious charts and statistics, and especially a delving into exactly what happened and why -- that you will come away from this documentary with renewed appreciation for what public education used to mean and what, we hope, it can someday signify again.

As a filmmaker, Mims never raises his voice (although he occasionally lets his interviewees do this for him). Instead he piles up the evidence quietly and carefully and places it right in front of us. The result is impressive in both its quantity and quality. The movie's epilogue, involving the condition of Iowa State University, is like a further call to arms.

Starving the Beast, from Mr. Banowsky's distribution company, Violet Crown Films, and running 95 minutes, opened this past Friday, September 2, in at the E Street Cinema in DC, hits New York City at the IFC Film Center this coming Friday, September 9, and then opens on Friday, September 16, in Austin (Violet Crown Cinemas), Charlottesville (Violet Crown Cinemas), Los Angeles (Laemmle's Noho) and Madison (Sundance Cinemas). Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

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"disruption and reform", American documentaries, Bill Banowsky, higher education, public universities, Republican idiocy, STARVING THE BEAST, Steve Mims,

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THE HUNTING GROUND: Kirby Dick & Amy Ziering tackle rape again, this time via higher learning

Just as this twosome did three years back in The Invisible War, their exploration of rape in the U.S. military, Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering have now done for rape on the college and university campus, and what they tell us in their new film is -- if this is possible (and, yes, it is) -- even more appalling and disgusting than what we learned in the earlier documentary. It is bad enough that so many men, along with their enabling male pals, find it just-business-as-usual to rape women. But in THE HUNTING GROUND, we learn what our higher education system doesn't do about all this, especially when sports come into the picture. All this proves quite enough to make us wonder if maybe the treatment of women by Muslim fundamentalists and Sharia Law aren't so bad, after all.

The shoddy, sleazy behavior of so many of our educational institutions in blaming the victims and/or sweeping it all under the carpet is simply astounding, and the filmmakers back up the statistics they shows us by citing the various studies from which they came. As with the earlier doc about military rape, Dick and Ziering (above, left and right, respectively) point out that young men are also affected by rape on campus but that the primary victims are women.

The movie begins with those video-ed marketing and home movie moments in which schools promise the world to their new students, and the kids get ready for what they imagine will be their most wonderful experience. Then, as we hear the stories and as the filmmakers speak with one victim after another (most still alive, others not), and learn the reactions -- short- and long-term (note how many of the young women seem to have put on extra weight, post-attack -- the picture of male entitlement, patriarchy, power, and money buying silence comes slowly and horribly to the fore. Women remain, as so often, second-class citizens.

Some of the more moving moments come as the victims explain why their most difficult time entailed telling their parents about what happened. Fraternities of course come under the microscope, with ugly results. "Fraternities are essentially 'unregulated bars'," notes one fellow (shown below), and we hear a favorite frat-boy chant: "No means yes, and yes means anal." Wow. Can't wait till my grand-daughter gets into one of these bastions of higher learning.

Kirby and Ziering talk with a fellow now retired from the Notre Dame Campus Police, and what he has to tell us is pretty awful in terms of how the campus police are hog-tied by the university. Even worse -- but perhaps the crowning achievement of the documentary -- concerns the football star Jameis Winston (below, left), Florida State University, the Tallahassee Police Department and the untold horror and hypocrisy that can happen when your rapist is a guy who can help win football games. If this section of the film doesn't raise your blood pressure to new heights, I'll be surprised.

A lot of schools come in for a licking but the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill probably takes the cake. So much is so wrong with how higher education handles rape that you can't help but understand why the filmmakers maybe spend a bit too much time on their happier, rah-rah finish. Some of their organization, too, seems a little haphazard. But Dick and Ziering turn over so much ground so thoroughly that you'll forgive them the occasional fumble.

The Hunting Ground, from Radius/TWC and running a relatively swift 104 minutes, opens this Friday, February 27, in Los Angeles at The Landmark and in New York City at the Angelika Film Center, with other cities soon to join the ranks. To see all currently scheduled playdates, click here.   

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American documentaries, Amy Ziering, colleges and universities, higher education, Kirby Dick, rape, THE HUNTING GROUND,

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