Alabama Rush Documentary
 

While there were rumors of a documentary about Alabama rush during recruitment itself, it's being confirmed for HBO Max.

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/ala...ce-1235342485/

Directed by “Introducing, Selma Blair” director Rachel Fleit, the documentary is currently in production in Tuscaloosa, where “rush week” at the University of Alabama has recently concluded with more than 2,500 students rushing 19 sororities.

“This film is a thoughtful and compassionate portrayal of young women in 2022 as they rush the sorority system at the University of Alabama,” Fleit said in a statement via Vice, which was first provided to The New York Times for an Aug. 12 story that confirmed the doc is filming.

A representative for Vice Studios told the Times that “hidden microphones” are not involved in the production, following rumors that surfaced on TikTok about sorority candidates that have been caught with concealed recording devices during 2022 recruitment.

No release date has be revealed yet.

Rachel Fleit is an incredible documentarian. This will be a very thoughtful piece, no doubt. While it may stir controversy, that likely isn't her intent from the start.

All stories are more complex when you dig beneath the surface. I'm sure this will be a surprising look into the reality of sorority life in the south.

JMHO, but "thoughtful and compassionate" my ass.

Gonna update this thread quick; the documentary should be out in the summer on HBO max. It's certainly going to stir discussion amongst greeks and non greeks alike.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxxJRbiwgcQ

Well, we have a trailer and a release date of May 23rd.

You have to laugh. They're asking questions of PNMs who are just now going through recruitment, have never been a sorority member, and have been on campus less than a week.:rolleyes:

Well, that looks completely unbiased, and not in the least slanted toward one side.

Thank you Rachel…I mean RockClimber.

I know not every PNM is all over TikTok…but this is the sort of attention you attract (to yourself and any organization you are a part of) when you decide to put your whole life on the internet.

I’d say discretion is key but that’s definitely locking the barn door when the horse has been stolen in 2023…

Maybe this will be the thing that makes people realize you should not broadcast everything, and you really shouldn’t trust documentary producers with your innermost thoughts.

We can only hope.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

This makes me miss ancient rush vlogs: show your outfit, maybe film on a break, and don't reveal anything until you're opening your bid day card. The girls would eventually become active and even during spirit week (or rush training), it was just showing outfits and maybe showing the door chant off.

The one girl in the video graduated last year, so she's clearly doing this to hang on to fame. She is a Pi Phi I believe who has a pretty decent following on YouTube.

More in the news…
https://www.today.com/popculture/mov...edium=news_tab

Are you thinking of Lauren Norris? She just graduated last week, but I didn't see her in the trailer.

That was Gracie O'Connor who you see in the opening shot. She was also in Pi Phi and a well known vlogger.

That's definitely Gracie O'Connor. I stumbled on to her videos years ago when she was a freshman in 2018 and I was looking for "dorm hack" videos for my daughter. Gracie had a few good suggestions that we ended up purchasing and using.

Yes, I was referring to Gracie O'Connor.

This should be ... interesting.

I've visited the campus, as I evacuated to Tuscaloosa after Ida. Holy cats, those houses are big! I see from the 2022 recruitment thread that quota was 130ish. For reference, I went to school in the Northeast - at my school, total was 80.

I don't have a horse in this race, as AEPhi's chapter at the University of Alabama is dormant. But I'll be popping some popcorn and watching what happens.

aephi alum, when I started school the AEPhi chapter had closed a couple of years earlier but the house I think was still standing but empty and had been...or a fraternity was using it. It was on land that the next year was cleared. The stadium has long since expanded over that area.

Here I am…..eating my words. I thought it was fairly done. I can’t help but wonder if this documentary was Rachel Fleit’s journey of discovery as much as is was for the PNMs she followed.

It’s getting “meh” reactions from Reddit on the r/sorority subreddit. Their demographic skews much younger than GreekChat. Consensus seems to be that the hype from the trailer misrepresented the actual content. I’m not judging until I see it. The alopecia focus was “interesting”, according to many commenters.

Yes. All 3 traditionally Jewish groups were there back then. And at least 2 of the fraternoties - AEPi and ZBT. Don't know about the fraternities but SDT is the only sorority still there and is not as large as the others.

It was okay. It focuses a lot on transitioning from high school to college and uses recruitment as a vehicle to discuss the overall life experience. Nothing new or earth shattering for anyone who’s been through the transition. Normally when I watch a doc I like to go back and watch it again, to see if I missed anything. I really don’t have any desire to do that this time.

I liked that the filmmakers did not create an artificial wall between the crew and the subjects. Of course they got to know and care about each other; of course these are two-way relationships; let that be part of the story instead of pretending like journalistic detachment can exist on this kind of project.

I actually found it incredibly boring. Where was the actual rush? Like I didn't expect to see women IN a house during rush, but maybe talking about the process??? I didn't feel like much of it actually had to do with sorority rush. It felt more like following those 4 PNMs around BEFORE they went to school, and then listening to a bunch of actives say their chapter is this or that. Absolutely NOTHING redeeming or interesting.

I will say I thought the woman from Sigma Kappa was the most infuriating part for me. To come out, as an alum after just graduating last year and say you know your chapter is bottom tier and will be for the next 20-30 years, when you aren't going to be there to do anything to change it, nor did you do anything to change it during your four years there, is ridiculous. I hope she enjoys her 5 seconds of fame...and I hope SK removes her from their alumnae rolls.

I thought it was a documentary in search of a focus. Is it about rush? Is it about the patriarchy foisting unrealistic expectations on women? Is it about transitions? Is it about conforming to be in a group? It was all over the place, and instead of diving deep into one topic, it was a scattershot approach to many.

I thought it focused more on the woman making the documentary and all the rumors around it. Why even address the rumors about women recording, etc.

So while the documentary did feel unfocused at times, I am happy for the girl who ended up in ADPi! She sounded so excited and her words at the end made me know she's going to love her undergrad!

I feel like if they maybe stuck to 1 topic (overcoming "tiers", how intertwined sorority life is in the south, etc.) this could have been really good.

Ugggg, I hate when “documentaries” end up like that. There was a movie a few years ago called Generation Wealth that sounded really intriguing and the filmmaker ruined it by making it more about herself than exploring the wealth (pun intended) of information out there and making a good film. I guess making a movie is cheaper than therapy these days.

Ah, dash! I was hoping some lucky pnm had secretly recorded (audio/video) her experience and would "wake up" those not yet members of our greek community with "how it really is" during the infamous Bama Recruitment,
thereby causing the end of greek life as we know it (:rolleyes: sarcasm)

1) https://www.chronicle.com/article/pa...actually-in-it

2) https://thoughtcatalog.com/christine...h-documentary/

3) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/12/style/bama-rush.html

4) https://dnyuz.com/2023/05/24/it-wasn...sh-whatsoever/

Late to the game but I was hoping to get more than a handful if PNMs "getting ready" to go thought the process. Although I did stop ⅔ of the way in. I will have to finish it when I have the mindset.

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/04/11800...t-a-university

I haven't watched the documentary, and I don't know that I have any intention to do so, but it strikes me as odd that this is the opening question and response in this interview:

Based on the commentary and articles I've read since the documentary was released, it doesn't sound like any of these topics were truly explored. But maybe I'm wrong?

The Hunting Ground did a good job discussing rape on campus in detail (not just in GL). That Fusion Investigates show did a fraternities episode and it touched on it as well.

It’s a tough issue. Not a whole lot of victims want to report at all, let alone talk on camera.

Same with eating disorders- there’s a lot of shame. Only substitute seek help for report.

Point being, each issue is so complicated it could and did require its own lengthy documentary. Why she thought she could roll it all into one is beyond me. Plus all the Alabama stuff.

Bama rush Doc chick just wanted to cover everything under the sun but wound up with a whole lot of nothing.

IMO If you don’t already have Max it’s not even with the $10 to watch this.

Oh, don't even get me going on the fraternity rape culture. As a student, I had many more independents try to force themselves on me than I did fraternity members, and it seems like so many women I talked with felt the same way. I've also taught at 3 campuses that didn't have Greeks and the forced sex problem was really bad.

The Thought Catalog writer’s synopsis of the doc was right on, so if you are wondering about the doc but don’t want to watch it, read her article.

Yeah, which is why I appreciate that the Hunting Ground handled the issue as a campus problem and not specifically a GL problem.

(In fairness the Fusion documentary was done by an alum from a fraternity whose name slips my mind atm and it was reasonably balanced)

I wouldn’t trust this Bama Rush lady with this sort of topic. Actually she’s probably make an interesting trailer and then just bore everyone to death again.

LOVING your last sentence, Winter! Definitely signature worthy!

Wow! A GC first for me! Thanks