Underplayed Gems

Frat House (1998)

Frat House poster
Directed by
Todd Phillips
Genre
documentary film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h
Rating
5.9 of 10 from 11 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

This documentary looks at the violent and degrading rituals of hazing in college fraternities. It follows the pledging process at a few fraternity houses, showing the abuse that young men endure to be accepted.

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What happens

Frat House is a 1998 documentary that explores the darker side of fraternity life and hazing. The film, directed by Todd Phillips and Andrew Gurland, focuses on the pledging process through a composite of different fraternities. It was mostly filmed at the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Alpha Tau Omega's charter was revoked two years later in 2000, though it has since been reinstated. The documentary also features scenes of the Beta Chi and Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternities on the campus of SUNY Oneonta in Oneonta, New York. The film premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival to acclaim, winning the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary. HBO Films acquired the distribution rights and planned to air it that year, but after subsequent allegations that some of the film's content was staged for the camera, as well as concerns from fraternity members about their depiction in the film, HBO cancelled the airing. The film never received an official release, though bootleg versions have occasionally circulated online. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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