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Frat House
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Wikipedia article
'Frat House' is a 1998 documentary that explores the darker side of fraternity life.
The film is directed by Todd Phillips, director of 'The Hangover' movie series, and Andrew Gurland, and 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 Alpha Tau Omega's charter was revoked two years later, in 2000, though it has since been reinstated.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 fraternity on the campus of SUNY Oneonta in Oneonta, New York. Beta Chi is an unrecognized fraternity in Oneonta and was kicked off the Oneonta campus after reports of severe hazing emerged. In January 2018, the fraternity was later recognized by SUNY Oneonta. Other unrecognized fraternities included in the documentary include Sigma Alpha Mu at SUNY Oneonta, also known as "Sammy", and Tau Kappa Epsilon, which was later recognized by the university in 2007 but subsequently had that recognition revoked.
Awards
'Frat House' was awarded "Grand Jury Prize: Documentary" at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.[https://history.sundance.org/films/1781/frat_house 'Frat House'] at Sundance Film Festival website
Criticisms
The documentary was criticized by Muhlenberg College for including scenes that it contends were staged, saying "This was promoted as a documentary. Clearly, it is fiction. The scenes were staged, and people were paid to act out scenes."[https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1999-01-06-3244213-story.html "Hazing shots in documentary were staged,"] 'The Morning Call', January 6, 1999
Responding to objections to the documentary by Alpha Tau Omega, HBO, the documentary's distributor, never aired it. But it was later released online.
References
* Rapkin, Mickey. "Burning Down The House". 'The Cornell Daily Sun.' October 15, 1998.
* Daly, Steve. "Hazed & Confused". 'Entertainment Weekly.' Iss 466, pp. 1920. January 8, 1999.
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