The Invisible War

Kori Cioca served in the Coast Guard. Her superior beat her and broke her jaw, then raped her. When she reported it, the authority conducting the investigation was the same unit. The man was not punished. Kori left the service and the veterans' administration did not cover the surgery her jaw needed for years. The documentary finds dozens of such people. Women and men speak to camera; the same structure runs through all of it, because the chain of complaint goes through the commander and the commander is often the perpetrator's superior. Kirby Dick directs. It is an American production and a documentary. The film takes on sexual assault in the American military and builds the subject on the gap between official figures and what the witnesses describe. The documentary won the audience award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Oscar for best documentary. Shortly after seeing the film, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made a change; a revision was announced under which the decision to investigate would not rest with the victim's immediate unit commander. The narrative does not give the statistics alone; every figure arrives with a person. The documentary records not only the victims but officials defending the system, and those conversations undo themselves. The narrative uses Kori Cioca's fight for her surgery as its spine. Its limit is the watching; the accounts are heavy, the anger constant, and the film gives no relief. Who it is for: viewers who like investigative documentary and narratives of institutional responsibility. Who it is not for: the subject is shattering, the testimony hard, and the ending brings no resolution.