‘The Invisible War’ Details Shocking Horrors Faced by True Heroes

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CHICAGO – A female soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan is less likely to be hit by enemy fire than she is to be sexually assaulted by a fellow soldier. If that doesn’t chill you to the bone and make your blood boil, I don’t want to know you. It’s shameful, disgusting, and infuriating and Kirby Dick’s “The Invisible War” brilliantly brings this under-reported story to the surface in a way that makes it one of the best documentaries of the last several years.

Here’s some more perspective. Over 20% of the women who have volunteered to keep you safe have been sexually assaulted. The numbers from the Department of Defense imply that over 16,000 men and women were assaulted LAST YEAR. And the pain doesn’t come close to ending after the assault. Not only do these women (mostly women, but men are assaulted and profiled in Dick’s film as well) deal with physical pain and emotional turmoil for years but it’s often compounded by the way the institution deals with the crimes. Blaming the victim, protecting the criminal, building a culture of hate and violence - what someone calls “professional retaliation in their chosen career.” And their chosen career is serving in the military. If it doesn’t make you angry, you’re not human.

The Invisible War
The Invisible War
Photo credit: Cinedigm

In Dick’s breathtaking film (it’s an over-used word but I mean it literally…there was one point early on when brave woman after woman came forward to describe her assault where I found it hard to breathe and it happened again later in the film when a judgment was issued that made me scream out loud), you will meet a number of American heroes who will be hard to forget. One in particular that Dick keeps returning to is Michigan Coast Guard veteran Kori Cioca, a woman who not only has to deal with a VA claim process that’s ridiculous but a litany of traumatic issues related to her assault. She carries a knife and a cross when she leaves the house. Her sex life with her very supportive husband isn’t normal. She wakes up her family in the middle of the night to play because it’s quiet and she feels safe. Oh, and she can’t eat solid foods because her jaw was broken by her superior.

The people who sit in front of Dick’s cameras and cry as they open up about horrendous details not just about the rapes but trying to stop suicide attempts afterwards or dealing with the realization that what happened to them as led to no justice — they are true HEROES. Their stories make you angry but their courage to tell them should make you proud. And when they start to take action as Dick’s film turns in the final act to be about how we can at least try to stop this international embarrassment, it truly takes off. “We’re all in this together.” God, I hope that’s true.

The Invisible War
The Invisible War
Photo credit: Cinedigm

Every once in awhile a film introduces us to true heroism. Not the nonsense we see in Summer movies. Not the crap we see on the red carpet. Not the bloated promotional material for the Army that we often get from our government. Last year’s “The Interrupters” did it. Dick’s former masterpiece “Twist of Faith” did it. What’s so striking about “The Invisible War” is how Dick doesn’t just focus on the trauma and the pain but on the courage and the bravery to come forward and try and stop it. Telling these stories and taking action to try to stop history from repeating itself is one of the bravest things I’ve seen on film. I will never forget Kori Cioca.

“The Invisible War” is hard to watch. It’s hard to take. It’s hard to sit through. And it should be. We too often ignore these issues. We too often sweep them under the rug and pretend they’re not happening and it allows the culture to continue. I am grateful to Kirby Dick for being the incredible investigative journalist that seems to be sorely missing from our print and television industries and I am in awed gratitude to the subjects of his brave, amazing new film.

“The Invisible War” was directed by Kirby Dick. It is playing in some markets now and opens on Friday, June 29, 2012 at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago before expanding into other markets across the country.

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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