TV Reviews : Rape Documentary on ‘America Undercover’

A disturbing “America Undercover” documentary, “Rape: Cries From the Heartland,” tonight at 10 on HBO, strives to shock viewers into understanding that rape is not an act of unbridled sexual passion, but a violent crime of anger and aggression.

The documentary, from Maryann DeLeo and Jon Alpert focuses on seven rape victims, aged 7 to 72. DeLeo and Alpert worked with Memphis police, riding with officers to the scenes of reported rapes. They filmed much of the footage just hours after the incidents, from the victims’ gynecological examination by Rape Crisis Center workers to their questioning by police.

The sexually explicit language, the graphic suffering and the recognition that these are lives inalterably changed, are deeply affecting. But something else disturbs about this intense film. It begins with this disclaimer: that the “women in this program allowed the most painful and private experience of their lives to be filmed,” hoping to help others.

Did the mentally handicapped woman make that decision? The 7-year-old, the disoriented 72-year-old grandmother? Theirs are the most powerful images, intentionally: No one could assume they were culpable.

Yet, even as the film makes its point, it ignores unresolved questions of privacy and ethics.