The Invisible War Blows Away the LAFF

Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering‘s brilliant documentary on the epidemic of rape in the U.S. military The Invisible War had a free screening this weekend at the LA Film Festival–and blew the room away. This Fishie attended no less than seven films over the last four days of the festival and The Invisible War was unquestionably the strongest. From what we’ve seen, the film is easily the front runner for Best Documentary at this year’s Oscars. But more importantly, without even being released yet, the film is having a real world impact. Producer Amy Ziering was in attendance for Saturday’s LAFF audience Q&A (the most and perhaps only intelligent audience Q&A we have ever attended by the way) and informed the crowd that the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office Mary Kay Hertog–among the more incompetent military officials interviewed in the film–had been forced to resign. This came on the heels of Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta screening the film and immediately authorizing major changes to the way military rape allegations are handled.

Truly a wonderful piece of journalism.

The film opens in theaters nationwide this Friday.