The Hunting Ground: Rewriting stories of survival and accountability

Content warning: This event contains references to gender-based and sexual violence.

Join us for this special Women’s Voices event during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence - an online panel discussion on 2015 documentary The Hunting Ground and efforts to rewrite the story of sexual violence in education. 

Nominated for an Oscar and two Emmy Awards and billed by Sundance Film Festival as ‘a piercing, monumental exposé’, The Hunting Ground  follows survivors of sexual assault on American university campuses as they pursue both their education and justice in the face of institutional failure. 

In Australia, the film was used as a tool in a decade-long campaign to interrogate responses to sexual violence in Australian universities, ultimately securing systemic reform with the establishment of an effective complaints process, National Student Ombudsman and National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence. 

In this online panel discussion, hear from filmmaker Amy Ziering, End Rape On Campus Australia campaigner and policy specialist Sharna Bremner, survivor-advocate and Youth Against Sexual Violence Australia founder Dani Villafaña and The Man Cave Senior Facilitation Coach Kyle Llewellyn on their work to rewrite the narratives surrounding gender-based violence in education settings, and new measures for prevention, accountability and justice.

Watch The Hunting Ground on DocPlay

The Hunting Ground is classified M, recommended for mature audiences.

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This event is presented as part of Documentary Australia’s Women’s Voices initiative, which elevates stories from women, girls and gender-diverse people that shift the narrative and drive progress for gender equality and justice. Learn more or support Women's Voices.

The Hunting Ground is a film by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, and is a Jane Doe Films Production. The Hunting Ground Australia Project was created and funded by Shark Island Institute through Good Pitch Australia, a joint initiative with Documentary Australia.
 

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About the speakers 

Amy Ziering is a two-time Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker known for hard-hitting, truth-to-power exposés that have catalysed sweeping legal and cultural changes – helping, in part, to usher in the #MeToo movement.

Her projects include Allen v. Farrow (HBO), The Invisible War (PBS), The Hunting Ground (CNN), The Bleeding Edge (Netflix), Not So Pretty (HBO Max), and On The Record (HBO Max). Her work has led to congressional hearings and reforms, corporate policy changes, and national conversations around sexual assault, patient safety, and consumer protection.

Ziering's accolades span two Oscar nominations, two Emmy wins, twelve Emmy nominations, a Peabody, an Independent Spirit Award, the Producers Guild's Stanley Kramer Award, a duPont-Columbia Silver Baton, and a George Polk Award, among others. She has collaborated with Oscar-winning composers Ryuichi Sakamoto and Diane Warren and artists including Lady Gaga, Mary J. Blige, and Keke Palmer.  

Sharna Bremner is an anti-sexual violence advocate and policy specialist.

In 2016, she founded End Rape on Campus Australia, a not-for-profit that supported students impacted by sexual harm in higher education communities and lobbied for reforms at campus, state and national levels. She directed EROC until its closure in 2024 following the implementation of the National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence and the National Student Ombudsman, reforms that she helped drive.

Sharna serves on the Department of Education's Gender-based Violence Specialist Advisory Panel and consults on lived-experience informed sexual violence response and policy reform.

Dani Villafaña is a gender justice campaigner, survivor-advocate and community organiser passionate about children’s rights, sustainability, and intergenerational justice.

She believes that every student who experiences sexual assault by a peer deserves their school's support to continue their education safely. Alongside Fair Agenda and End Rape on Campus, she is currently campaigning for national standards to support school students impacted by gender-based violence. 

In 2024, she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship investigating institutional responses to peer-on-peer sexual violence in secondary school communities. As a high schooler, she founded Youth Against Sexual Violence Australia, a grassroots organisation campaigning for the rights of children and young people impacted by sexual harm in their school communities, and was a lead organiser behind School Strike for Climate.

Dani has served as an advisor to the Australian Law Reform Commission, Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department, Knowmore Legal Service, St Andrew’s Cathedral School, and Girl Up (Global Fund for Children). 


Kyle Llewellyn is a Senior Facilitation Coach at The Man Cave, a preventative mental health and emotional intelligence charity supporting boys and young men across Australia.

Kyle facilitates school workshops that support teenage boys to build emotional awareness, strengthen relationships and explore the expectations shaping their experience of masculinity. His work creates space for honest conversations about identity, belonging, respect and responsibility, helping young men develop healthier ways of relating to themselves and others. 

Alongside his work in schools, Kyle trains and mentors facilitators, contributes to program design, and delivers presentations for parents, educators and community groups. He brings a practical, on-the-ground perspective to conversations about engaging boys and young men in building safer, more respectful school communities. 

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Support

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, contact emergency services on 000. 

If the topics raised cause distress, or you need additional support, contact one of the national services listed below.

Full Stop Australia:
1800 FULL STOP (1800 385 578) 

Rainbow Sexual, Domestic and Family Violence Helpline:
1800 497 212

1800 RESPECT:
1800 737 732

MensLine Australia:
1300 789 978

Lifeline:
131 114

13YARN:
139 276