Sexual assault within the U.S. military has been the subject of scandals, studies and a recent congressional hearing. But it's perhaps never been so thoroughly investigated and dramatically presented as in the documentary, "The Invisible War," which has been nominated…

This year's Oscar nominations were announced Thursday. From Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" to Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty," the choices always stir great interest, debate and offer a chance to look at the direction and quality of movies these days.

Editor's Note: Today we hand over question-and-answer duties to Charles Ferguson, former MIT academic and dot.com entrepreneur who is now a documentary filmmaker, and who created the Academy Award-winning analysis of the Crash of '08, "Inside Job." Last week,…