- Frat House
Infobox Film
name = Frat House
image_size =
caption =
director =Todd Phillips Andrew Gurland
producer =Todd Phillips Andrew Gurland
writer =
narrator =
starring =
music =J.F. Coleman
cinematography =
editing = Salamo Levin
distributor =
released =21 January ,1998 (premiere at Sundance)
runtime = 60 mins
country =USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0139221:"This article refers to the documentary. For the campus housing facility, seeFraternity house .""Frat House" is a
documentary film exploring the darker side of fraternity life. The film was directed byTodd Phillips andAndrew Gurland , and largely filmed atAllentown, Pennsylvania 'sMuhlenberg College ; the majority of the film was shot in the house of theAlpha Tau Omega fraternity, which has since been banned from Muhlenberg. [cite news|last=Yang|first = Eleanor |url=http://archives.higheredcenter.org/hecnews/events/000630.html | title = HEC News: Alpha Tau Omega Members Linked to Fights, Hazing, and More| date = 2000-06-24|publisher = Higher Education Center, US Department of Education] The opening fraternity, that drove the filmakers out of the college and the town, is the Beta Chi fraternity on the State University of New York College at Oneonta campus in Oneonta New York. Beta Chi is an Unrecognized fraternity in Oneonta, and has was kicked off the Oneonta campus after reports of severe Hazing. it continues to operate as a rogue, unrecognize chapter in the town to this day. Other unregognized fraternities from SUNY Oneonta shown in the film include Sigma Alpha Mu, also known as "Sammy", and Tau Kappa Epsilon, who was recognized in the spring of 2007 but shortly thereafter lost their recognition from the campus. "Frat House" won twoSundance Film Festival awards in 1998, but has been attacked for allegedly containing sequences that were staged for the cameras."Frat House" was originally intended to be shown on the HBO TV channel, but was never aired after receiving allegations that much of the final portion of the film was staged. The sequences concerned involved '
hazing ', in which aspring members of the fraternity (known as 'pledges') are seen undergoing humiliatinginitiation rite s. The allegation is that the pledges who appear on screen were in fact already members of the fraternity: the fraternity chapter was paid $1500 to film the events, and several members were paid $50 each to pretend to be pledges and re-enact things that were rumored to happen during fratenity pledging rituals. The filmmakers signed non-binding forms stating that the school and fraternity names would not be used, and that the events did not reflect the behavior of the fraternity. The deceit was noticed because the film was shot in the Spring, but Muhlenberg College did not rush during the Spring.Fact|date=September 2007Phillips and Garland claim their film is completely accurate, but they have not refuted the claim that pledging did not happen during the Spring at Muhlenberg College.Fact|date=September 2007 While not admitting to have done it himself, Phillips argues that staging re-enactments of true events is a technique used by well-known documentarians such as
Nick Broomfield andMichael Moore . [" [http://www.impossiblefunky.com/archives/issue_9/9_frat.asp?IshNum=9 Are Those Two Fools At It Again?] ", "Cashiers du Cinemart", retrieved 07-11-2005 .]References
*Rapkin, Mickey. "Burning Down The House". "
The Cornell Daily Sun ."October 15 ,1998 .
*Daly, Steve. "Hazed & Confused". "Entertainment Weekly ." Iss 466, pp. 19-20.January 8 ,1999 .External links
*imdb title|id=0139221|title=Frat House
* [http://www.impossiblefunky.com/archives/issue_9/9_frat.asp?IshNum=9 "Are Those Two Fools At It Again?", "Cahiers du Cinemart"] (article on the controversy)###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=
years=1998
(tied with "The Farm")
before="Girls Like Us "
after="American Movie "
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