What happened to the original plot of the movie in the summer of last year the University of Alabama was in a tailspin rumors had swirled about a secret documentary made by Vice or possibly HBO Max now simply known as Max I guess the documentary theoretical at the time was
Rumored to be an attempt at getting an inside look at the Recruitment and Rush process for the school’s sorority houses the main rumor was that some of the potential new members who are planning on rushing Greek life were secretly wearing microphones in an attempt to capture sorority recruitment rituals
That would otherwise be kept Under Wraps now there was indeed a documentary being made which we’ll talk about but the rumors about the new recruits secretly infiltrating and documenting the process through hidden cameras and microphones weren’t true at all but while these conspiracies weren’t true they did still
Do a lot of damage to the folks on campus the New York Times reports that a 19 year old girl named Marina Anderson was misidentified as one of the sub objects of the documentary due to a hair tie wrapped around her shirt that was mistaken for a hot mic Marina was
Thereby referred to as HBO girl and was dismissed entirely from the rush process in August of that year so this film was already coming in with a lot of pressure and controversy to deliver if the members of these Alabama sororities were being so secretive and paranoid about the rush process surely they had
Something to hide and would go as far as to ruin an innocent girl’s freshman year of college to protect it then the trailer for the documentary released on HBO Max and yes I’m still calling it that a few weeks ago I can’t show all of it for copyright reasons but the
Marketing really tried to deliver on that aspect of the film going as far as to include social media posts from people about the documentary rumors you know really playing up on the they don’t want you to watch this aspect of the Intrigue it also poised itself to be the
Ultimate expose on Greek life that would tank the whole cultural institution in the US for good the film dropped on the newly named streaming service on Tuesday and by Wednesday people weren’t happy because to put it simply they did not get what they were promised the film ultimately profiles several different
Young girls who are planning on participating in the Bama Rush process we get an insight into the preparation for this process which includes consultations from professional Rush Services and a bit of cultural context about the history of Southern sororities and how the rush process actually does
Work so even if it wasn’t the dramatic cultural expose that it promised to be as documentaries rarely are why did it leave so many people feeling shorted or disappointed by the entire viewing experience I sat down and watched the film to figure it out now I went to a
Small liberal arts college in New England so I was pretty far removed from Greek life during that experience we had like small professional fraternity and sorority organizations so it was nothing like the University of Alabama I’m super far removed from that sort of Southern Mega Community culture down there but
Even watching this film as somebody who’s so far removed from that culture the film didn’t actually represent anything that I didn’t already know with what little knowledge I have and I think for a project like this that’s kind of an issue you see it’s not a secret that
Sorority and fraternity culture in the United States is problematic at best and needs to be eradicated at worst there have been plenty of reported hazing incidents campus sexual assaults allegations of racism at fraternity and sorority organizations across the U.S it’s not a secret the film does delve
Into it a little bit but it’s all very surface level the thing that everyone wanted to know with Bama in particular was about the machine the machine has been a long-standing organization at the University of Alabama the rumor is that it’s a secret society of sorts that
Controls a lot of the internal and external dealings of student government and Greek life at the University does that sound interesting and juicy yeah of course it does that’s probably what folks are tuning in to learn more about especially because the marketing has leaned into the rumors about the
Paranoia on campus around this time but everything that we learn about the machine is once again very surface level the film’s director who we’ll talk more about later asks her subjects who remember at this point aren’t formally in a sorority about what they know about the machine and obviously none of them
Really want to answer and in my opinion that’s understandable because it’s a literal conflict of interest for them based on the situation that they’re currently in otherwise the only other information we learn about the machine is like what I just told you now the last thing I want to say about the
Machine is that if you know even a little bit about you know the culture of the University of Alabama does it even a little bit just barely even not even just this specific University just just the history and culture of big institutions in the southern part of the United States does
It surprise you necessarily that there is an all-white Secret society that runs the school because to me if you’re taking into consideration the fact that the University of Alabama was highly steeped in segregation in the Jim Crow era has very recently had incidents of of racism play out on campus within Greek life
Are you surprised by the fact that a white Society is running the school because to me that just sounds like the school that just sounds like the school I I think my point here is that this is just institutionalized racism but using the framing device of like ooh this soup
Spooky scary society and using like this ominous music when you’re talking to like these scared little 19 year olds it doesn’t really do the issue Justice because what you’re actually talking about is institutionalized racism at a university where that is common and to be expected it feels a little
Misleading but also unnecessary like why are you mentioning it if you’re not gonna do the full issue Justice you know what I mean now before we get into the main sticking points of this film which is what everyone has been talking about I do want to point out one thing I think
This documentary does do well I actually really like the profiles of the girls who are rushing because I think the modern day teenage girl psyche is rather undocumented especially in the digital age I really enjoyed getting to know these characters and understanding their longing for acceptance and Community
Because I think it’s easy to frame sorority girls and sorority culture as something to point and laugh at you know the classic you pay for friends insult and while I’m sure there’s some nefarious going on in a lot of these organizations I don’t think all of
The young girls who go to the University of Alabama to partake in this culture are inherently evil do some of them eventually become that way just because of the group mentality of the whole situation sure but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel for these girls
Talking about their struggles with body image and longing for friendships and the perception of themselves I actually think it’s a subject that needs to be tackled more but the good that is here is definitely outweighed by a lot of the mishandling on the director’s part let’s
Talk about the obvious here there was no secret underground expose of Greek life at all the documentary quite literally jumps in time to show the subjects after the rush process actually happens there’s nothing that really takes place in the sorority houses the way that so many people on campus had been fearing
And I don’t think this would have been as much of an issue if it wasn’t marketed that way so ultimately you spend time getting to know and invest in the journeys of these girls and there’s quite literally just a time Jump That glosses over the most important part of
Why this is such a unique situation why we’re tuning in in the first place now the director does appear a lot in this film just as like herself and she actually does make reference to this at one point toward the end of the documentary where she says that it would
Be impossible to even do something like record secretly because of all of the audio Logistics which yeah I believe that but then like why is the marketing around your movie hindered on the premise of you discovering something about Greek life at this school that nobody else has found out wouldn’t that
Directly imply that you use some kind of sneaky investigative journalism tactic to achieve that result speaking of the director as I mentioned she is in this documentary a lot throughout the film she speaks very candidly about her journey with alopecia and wanting to be accepted by other young women and that
Is a beautiful story to tell sure but should it have been told in a film like this where the subject is a very polarizing and inherently political topic that has nothing to do with that I don’t think so my theory here is that what she set out to do with this film
And what HBO Max wanted from this film were two completely different things and I get that sense because I looked a little bit into this director her name is Rachel and she talked a lot about how the inspiration to make this documentary came from the metoo movement in 2018. so
I was a sophomore or Junior in journalism school when the Crux of the metoo movement was hitting and what I encountered a lot of back then were a lot of young women who were just you know finding the language to talk about their own subjugation within the patriarchy and becoming equipped to tell
Their stories and and and voice more of their struggles whether it’s in some kind of industry or in their personal life or in college and the issue with that sometimes is that when you’re telling those stories for the first time and you’re not including a lot of like the big picture context
And political context surrounding that kind of subjugation you tend to get really introspective and into yours into yourself you tend to go into yourself and report from that experience and that’s what I feel like she was trying to do here so for her this movie was not
Really about Bama so much as it was about these struggles that women face in terms of beauty standards and acceptance and I think it does you know capture that aspect of things well with how she profiles the subjects but when you’re looking at it in the context of
Something like Bama Rush something that has had a lot of Journalism surrounding it something that is very political within its context if you look at the history of these schools and the history of of racism and sexual assault that’s all really big picture stuff and I don’t think centering in on a
Narrative about yourself is is complementary to what the overall main subject of this movie was supposed to be those two things are sort of working against each other I think she could have made a beautiful brilliant documentary about alopecia and about body image and expectations and and
Girls need for belonging and I don’t think she needed to necessarily do it within the frame of Bama rush I don’t think that was necessary I think all of these little kind of points were here but she didn’t really do enough to tie the full picture
Together in a way that didn’t bring a disconnect to the viewer ultimately I think the Bama documentary had something to say but it wasn’t the thing that people wanted to hear is it the most groundbreaking documentary I’ve ever seen no is it completely irredeemable and unethical also no it’s just fine and
I guess fine isn’t the worst thing to be these days thanks for watching guys and I’ll see you next time
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