As the first film in their fourth annual film festival, the Anthropology Graduate Student Association hosted a screening of the documentary, Spitting Game: The College Hookup Culture last night.

The documentary, written and directed by Denice Evans, examines the growing trend of hookups and casual sex across college campuses in the United States. Through interviews with students, parents, psychologists, and authors, Evans tries to unearth what hooking up actually means and finds that there is no one definition all can agree on. The common factor involves alcohol. Though this probably surprises no one who has stepped foot on a college campus, Evans takes the issue further, looking into why drinking and hooking up are so often linked, and the problems alcohol can cause when it comes to legal consent. The film addressed issues of sexual assault and rape that can happen during these situations, recounting detailed stories of survivors.

Made in 2008, and the winner of the 2009 Delray Beach Film Festival for Best Social Awareness Documentary, Spitting Game is remarkably relevant to college campuses like Penn State. The discussion with Evans proved that this was not a problem isolated to big or small campuses, but something that occurs in almost every college across the country. A trailer for the documentary can be seen here.

This year’s theme of the Anthropology Graduate Student Association’s film festival is “Exploring Sex and Gender.” The next film presented will be The Virgin Daughters, on Thursday, March 21 in 112 Chambers at 7 p.m. This film will look at the “purity movement” surrounding girls who promise at a young age to remain virgins until their wedding. The last film will be Two Spirits, by Lydia Nibley, which will look at gender in Navajo Native American culture. This will be screened Thursday, March 28 in 201 Thomas at  7 p.m.