The Invisible War

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL: What does it say about a society that its largest self-governing institution is designed to support a culture of rape and oppression? What does it mean that this shadow society belongs not to a country famous for its human rights violations and ingrained sexism but the United States of America? How much distance can the larger social body realistically claim from that shadow? More urgently: Is this how the country would rearrange itself absent its official and impartial paths of accountability?

These are among the questions posed and explored by The Invisible War, one of the most devastating studies of modern military service to emerge from a decade spent at war. Directed by Kirby Dick (Twist of Faith, This Film is Not Yet Rated), The Invisible War seeks to expose the incidences of rape, systematic cover-up, and victim persecution rampant in the U. S. military. For decades the statistics have been acknowledged and all the right words—“zero tolerance,” “everything in our power”—have been said by those in power, but the system that protects rapists in the military remains in place. Dick managed to convince a number of women veterans (he interviewed up to 150) to speak about their experiences on the record, and the result is a document so personal and wrenching that it can be no longer said that the extent of the problem is unclear.

Indeed, after its premiere here at Sundance on Friday night, an audience member sought out one of the subjects, a former U.S. coast guard seaman named Kori Cioca, and offered to donate the $60,000 US dollars she needed for surgery to correct the injuries she sustained when she was violently raped by one of her supervisors. Cioca is one of the young women whose stories make up the bulk of The Invisible War. The similarities between them begin to speak for themselves: Most were raped by senior officers; many were drugged or attacked in their sleep; several were then brought up on charges themselves when they filed a complaint, including, most incredibly, charges of adultery for having sex with a married man; almost all of them were forced out of the service one way or another, and have continued to live with a level of trauma that the film takes pains to characterise as akin to incest.

As was clear in Dick’s documentary on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Twist of Faith, the level of betrayal is heightened by the victim’s devotion and trust. All of the women enlisted with the dream of a dignified life of service, and had developed exceptional records before their rapes. What brings the heartbreak of listening to these stories to the boiling point of rage is the military’s active suppression of the crimes and aggressive persecution of the victims. It is textbook for any fascist regime: create an atmosphere of brutality, fear, and intimidation. Dick includes a number of male victims in the film, emphasising the idea that rape is an act of predation and power; it is only because the women are perceived as weaker that a disproportionate number of them—20 percent of enlistees report an assault, though the actual number is suspected to be almost double that—are victimised.

Dick interweaves talking head interviews with various military and government officials in with the testimony of the victims. On the whole the film is structured in the typical style of investigative documentary—talking heads, statistical background, a loose storyline, in this case involving Cioca’s struggle to have her injuries covered by insurance and the assembly of a class action lawsuit. With a story this compelling, not much more is needed—in fact with a story this urgent the concentration on getting it out and getting is straight takes priority over stylistic concerns. Dick concentrates on handling the extremely sensitive nature of the topic and the fragility of his subjects deftly and with respect. It’s not framed as a takedown; it doesn’t have to be.

It becomes clear that the status quo is somehow working for the United States military, or else they would have already taken measures to make sure that known sexual predators were not enlisting at a disproportionately high rate; they would have recognised, as other countries have, that giving unit commanders carte blanche in deciding criminal and legal matters thwarts justice in cases like these. The court’s dismissal of the women’s complaints makes it plain: In late 2011 they ruled that “rape is an occupational hazard of military service.”