Bama Rush

[DanaK]

HBO Max documentary on the sorority recruitment process at the University of Alabama

Variety article https://variety.com/2023/film/news/bama-rush-doc-trailer-tiktok-max-premiere-date-1235603466/

Trailer

 

[MCMLXXVII]

I’ll be here with bells on! My dad’s side of the family is in Tuscaloosa and my brother is a graduate.

[EtheltoTillie]

I’m very interested in this. I saw a documentary about sororities at the university of Mississippi many years ago. It was fascinating for this NYC girl. I wish I could find it. It was an indie film shown at the NY Film Festival. I wished I had had subtitles. I could not understand a lot through the accents. I went with a friend who grew up in Alabama, and she had no trouble understanding LOL. 

[EtheltoTillie]

This is disappointing!  They can’t get access to the real proceedings so they only focus on a few troubled outsiders. It’s sad too. 

[Irlandesa]

This was very terrible.  It wasn't just that they didn't get much inside information.  But I have to imagine that they could have found ex-sorority members willing to speak. 

It's that they glossed over racial issues, sexual assault and other aspects of not only Greek culture but "The Machine."

That all would be bad enough but the director decided to shoehorn herself into the story even though she doesn't have experience with rush.  Maybe she should have done a doc about alopecia.  After her first comparison of "rushing or masking", which was already too much, she should have kept her camera on her subjects.

[Angeleyes]

I agree. The director made the whole thing about herself. I wonder if that’s all the narrative she was left with when so many refused to participate? The Alopecia talk really should have been a whole different documentary and the director should not have inserted herself into the narrative.
 

It was jarring and sad that the one girl had been roofied three times and was found lying in the woods the last time. Also sad that she and the director seemed to treat it like no big deal. 

I was proud that Makayla saw that was becoming someone she was not and didn’t like and that she had the strength to get out. 

[EtheltoTillie]

Yes, when I posted earlier I hadn't finished watching.  Your comments are totally on the mark.  We don't really learn about the racial and social issues except superficially, and once I saw the director trying to find an analogy with her alopecia story I couldn't believe it. 

[EtheltoTillie]

Not getting much action on this thread!

[zenithwit]

On 6/2/2023 at 2:54 PM, EtheltoTillie said:

Not getting much action on this thread!

There's a reason for that.

Just finished watching this and yeah.... it was a really surface level documentary.  Which is unfortunate because it had an interesting and robust topic. 

To echo others' sentiments, it feels like the director wasn't able to gain access so she pivoted and added in her personal story.  The fact that she wasn't able to find a creative solution to the access issue honestly speaks to her skill as a documentarian.  There are documentaries out that deal with way more delicate and dangerous situations.  Sororities aren't that scary and if they are, that's worth exploring more.  

What I don't get is why the director didn't take a more factual approach.  Tell me about each day of Rush step by step (surely there is publicly available information there?), show me how the girls prepare for each day (outfits, etc), show me how they film their tik toks, etc.  

Overall, I think I learned more about rush from the fictional ABC Family show "Greek" than this documentary.

[EtheltoTillie]

@zenithwit you are right.  I more ordinary journalistic approach would be better.  Alternatively we'd probably learn more from TikTok.

BTW, I'm the one who wrote above about the old 1980 documentary Rush.  I really searched for it, but it seems not to be available anywhere.  It was only an hour long, but I still learned more.

[pasdetrois]

On 5/24/2023 at 12:17 AM, Irlandesa said:

That all would be bad enough but the director decided to shoehorn herself into the story even though she doesn't have experience with rush.

This drove me absolutely nuts. Talk about narcissism. And true documentarians (and news people) do not insert themselves into the story.

I'm a BAMA alumni. After consideration, my roommate (a childhood friend) and I decided not to rush. Many of our high school friends did.

The atmosphere at BAMA at that time was insanely competitive and very striated socially. I've never forgotten that girls from the wealthier sororities were expected to buy multiple new outfits for football weekends, which precluded a lot of girls from being able to participate. A few local dress shops did bang-up business, or mamas delivered or mailed outfits. The preeminent sorority was Tri-Delt and its fraternity counterpart socially was Kappa Alpha, whose "spiritual" founder was Robert E. Lee. KA members wore Confederate uniforms to events. I remember going to pre-game parades, and the KAs were on a float, in Confederate gray, and girls on the sidelines literally threw themselves at the float.

[heatherchandler]

On 6/11/2023 at 3:27 PM, pasdetrois said:

 

I'm a BAMA alumni. After consideration, my roommate (a childhood friend) and I decided not to rush. Many of our high school friends did.

The atmosphere at BAMA at that time was insanely competitive and very striated socially. I've never forgotten that girls from the wealthier sororities were expected to buy multiple new outfits for football weekends, which precluded a lot of girls from being able to participate.

Back in my day (late 90s), all actives had to buy TONS of new outfits for rush.  I remember having to buy thousands of dollars of specific pants, skirts, etc and also having to get several skirts and dresses made.  We were given the info and we had to have them custom made.  I remember my mom spent the summer buying clothes, and sourcing fabric and finding the right tailor.  She did end up finding a great tailor who she used for years after that.. but when I think about how much work was involved - every summer- omg.

eta I was not at BAMA, but at a Midwest state school 

Edited June 24, 2023 by heatherchandler

[kathe5133]

Never had an interest in being in one or even hearing about one.  I just didn't move in those circles.  To each his own, I guess.....

 

[EtheltoTillie]

On 6/24/2023 at 5:05 PM, heatherchandler said:

Back in my day (late 90s), all actives had to buy TONS of new outfits for rush.  I remember having to buy thousands of dollars of specific pants, skirts, etc and also having to get several skirts and dresses made.  We were given the info and we had to have them custom made.  I remember my mom spent the summer buying clothes, and sourcing fabric and finding the right tailor.  She did end up finding a great tailor who she used for years after that.. but when I think about how much work was involved - every summer- omg.

eta I was not at BAMA, but at a Midwest state school 

This is utterly fascinating.  Did you remain close with this sisterhood?  Was it all what was "promised"?  This would be utterly alien to me, but as an armchair anthropologist, I realize that whatever we did at my college, how we dressed (like hippies) and acted (in the early 70s), would be every bit as prescribed a behavior. 

[heatherchandler]

2 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

This is utterly fascinating.  Did you remain close with this sisterhood?  Was it all what was "promised"?  This would be utterly alien to me, but as an armchair anthropologist, I realize that whatever we did at my college, how we dressed (like hippies) and acted (in the early 70s), would be every bit as prescribed a behavior. 

Still close with some, a group of us go out every few months.  I loved it, it was everything I hoped it was.  My mom was not a sorority girl when she was at Berkeley in the 70s and she thought it was all very weird when I did it.  But then she met the other girls and ended up thinking it was nice.

[Sweet-tea]

I was disappointed in this documentary. As others said, the director inserting herself into the the story is a major flaw. It was irritating and unnecessary. She spent too much time on herself beginning fairly early on, but she really pushed it later with the Machine intimidation scenes and the blonde wig. Ok, let's just give up and admit this is all about YOU.

I also didn't learn as much about the process as I expected. I wanted to know more about the daily activities, timeline, preparation, their reactions when they were passed by a sorority, etc. 

A few of the girls seemed to have emotional issues, and I expected this doc to delve deeper into how rushing a sorority was a crutch for them. Perhaps if they could be accepted into an elite sorority, it meant they were ok. This was especially the case with Isabelle. She seemed fragile. I was concerned about her.

Marysol never looked into it, so I wasn't surprised when she dropped out. Shelby was so zealous I was afraid she wouldn't make it. 

Edited July 4, 2023 by Sweet-tea

[EtheltoTillie]

Gifting an article from yesterday's Wall Street Journal on sorority admission consultants.  A great companion piece to this flawed documentary.  Lots more information.  However, it's also flawed in that you don't find out how some of the subjects fared in the application process.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sorority-consultants-rush-colleges-parents-prepare-80b2cfc8?st=9ms3mnbfbw7hphi&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

[sararamos]

On 5/24/2023 at 7:17 AM, Irlandesa said:

This was very terrible.  It wasn't just that they didn't get much inside information.  But I have to imagine that they could have found ex-sorority members willing to speak. 

It's that they glossed over racial issues, sexual assault and other aspects of not only Greek culture but "The Machine."

That all would be bad enough but the director decided to shoehorn herself into the story even though she doesn't have experience with rush.  Maybe she should have done a doc about alopecia.  After her first comparison of "rushing or masking", which was already too much, she should have kept her camera on her subjects.

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Agree. They could've gotten a juicer scoop by just interviewing non-Greek life students and people who rushed and either didn't make it or dropped. Someone from my high school friend group went to the University of Alabama and I learned more about the dark side of Greek life thereby catching up with him over winter break than the entire doc revealed, and he didn't even rush.