Alabama Rush Documentary

[Cookiez17]

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

[TLLK]

Originally Posted by shadokat

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.

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.

[shadokat]

Yes, I was referring to Gracie O'Connor.

[aephi alum]

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.

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by aephi alum

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.

[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

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

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.

[AZTheta]

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.

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

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.

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.

[*winter*]

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.

[Low D Flat]

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.

[shadokat]

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.

[SWTXBelle]

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.

[AGDee]

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.

[Cookiez17]

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.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AGDee

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.

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.