Film's Child Rape Scene Causes Stir
By DEBBIE HUMMEL


PARK CITY, Utah (AP) - At a festival that features several films with
sexual content, including full male nudity and a documentary about
bestiality, a southern Gothic tale that includes the rape of a young
girl is causing the biggest stir.

``Hounddog'' is the story of Lewellen, a girl played by 12-year-old
Dakota Fanning, who is growing up in the 1960s South. She is a
free-spirit obsessed with Elvis Presley and has little supervision by
her abusive father and alcoholic grandmother.

Even before the first screening of ``Hounddog'' at the Sundance Film
Festival this week, a Christian film critic, citing Fanning's age,
decried the movie as child abuse, and Roman Catholic activist Bill
Donohue called for a boycott.

Fanning is defending her work as well as the movie, and so is the
head of Sundance, who said it was courageous for director Deborah
Kampmeier to tackle ``challenging material.'' ``Hounddog'' is entered
in the festival's dramatic category.

``It's not a rape movie,'' Fanning said Tuesday. ``That's not even
the point of the film.''

The disturbing scene lasts a few minutes but is not graphic. There is
no nudity, the scene is very darkly lit and only Fanning's face and
hand are shown.

Kampmeier said it took her a decade to get the film made, largely
because of the rape scene, but cutting it was a compromise she was
unwilling to make.

``This issue is so silenced in our society. There are a lot of women
who are alone with this story,'' she said.

``When you're shooting a film, it's the images you line up next to
each other that create a story,'' Kampmeier said. ``If you have a
hand hitting the ground, Dakota screaming 'stop' and you see a zipper
unzip - that creates a rape.''

Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission
and publisher of the Web site movieguide.org, claims ``Hounddog''
breaks federal child-pornography law. He said the law covers material
that ``appears'' to show minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

``Even if they're not actually performing the explicit act, we are
dealing with a legal issue here,'' he said.

Baehr said Fanning is being exploited in the film, and that it should
be considered an outrage.

``Children at 12 do not have the ability to make the types of
decisions that we're talking about here,'' he said. ``If we're
offended by some comedian's racial slur, why aren't we offended by
somebody taking advantage of a 12-year-old child?''

Two other children perform in the film. Cody Hanford plays Buddy, and
Isabelle Fuhrman plays a girl nicknamed ``Grasshopper.''

Kampmeier said she talked with the children and their parents but
didn't go into great detail with the young actors about the content.

``I didn't have to articulate to Cody and Isabelle the psychological
elements that were going on in this film,'' she said. ``I used images
to tell the story. I didn't manipulate these children or explain to
these children what was going on.''

Fanning said she and Kampmeier talked for months before the film was
shot and spent a day painting pottery together and discussing the
story.

``It's not really happening,'' Fanning said of a rape. ``It's a
movie, and it's called acting. I'm not going through anything. Cody
and Isabelle aren't going through anything, their characters are.

``And for me, when it's done it's done,'' she said. ``I don't even
think about it anymore.''

Sundance director Geoffrey Gilmore said independent filmmakers should
pursue sensitive subject matter.

``I feel the mission and very nature of what Sundance is about is to
provide a platform for that,'' he said.

On the Net:

http://festival.sundance.org/2007/