When rumors of a secret documentary circulated at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa last year, many students involved in sorority recruitment were on high alert.
There was talk of a film team on campus. Even more dramatically, there were unfounded rumors that some potential new fraternity members – known in Greek as PNMs – wore hidden microphones to capture what was happening behind closed doors.
It turned out that the rumors were only partially true. A documentary was actually made during the recruitment phase, better known as “Rush”, but no one who watched the film wore a hidden device to record secret rituals.
Rush at the University of Alabama became an international sensation in 2021 when TikTok videos gave people from around the world a glimpse into the annual event and its secretive traditions.
“Bama Rush” was released on Max on Tuesday. Directed by Rachel Fleit, the film follows four University of Alabama students from their summer of 2022 preparations to bidding day to find out if they’ve been invited to join a sorority. (Warning: Slight spoilers ahead.)
Working with her team, Ms. Fleit, who directed the 2021 documentary Introducing, Selma Blair, found her subjects by scouring social media for incoming students planning to rush.
She said she wrote to them and told them, “Listen, I want to take a 360-degree look at the sorority system at the University of Alabama. I really want to focus on the experiences of being a young woman today. We will address all the big issues you are facing.”
“This included many of the themes discussed in the film,” she said, including “body image, sexual assault, feminism, comparisons and competition between young women.”
Ms Fleit added that no one was paid to work on the documentary and that the film crew did not film in student dormitories. She also tried to make sure her presence didn’t alter the usual rush process, as she was trying to “take a very calm, very honest, very intimate portrait.”
The rumors about hidden microphones are “wrong”, said Mrs. Fleit. She added that she has “sympathy” for the students trapped inside.
Marina Anderson, 19, was one of the young women whose lives were impacted by campus rumors. She said she was fired from the rushing in August after she was falsely accused of carrying a microphone. What raised suspicion, Ms Anderson said, was a black hair tie that she had wrapped around the back of her shirt to make it fit better.
Despite her repeated denials, some of her peers refused to believe she wasn’t taking part in the documentary, calling her “HBO girl” for months. (Those allegations came when Max was still known as HBO Max. The platform rebranded Tuesday.)
“It was so uncomfortable,” Ms. Anderson said. “I had people recording me publicly. It really screwed up my freshman year.” She added that she enjoyed her time in college and looks forward to returning in the fall as a sophomore.
Ms. Anderson, who was not interviewed for “Bama Rush,” watched the documentary shortly after it was released on Max on Tuesday. It was “bittersweet” to look at, she said. In general, she found the film “disappointing” and said that ultimately “it’s not about the onslaught on Alabama” but rather the personal struggles of the women portrayed in it.
Ms Anderson added that she occasionally wondered what she might have been missing out on because of the microphone paranoia. “I think the most important thing is just that rumors are really dangerous,” she said.
Grant Sikes, another student who made it in 2022, shared this sentiment. Ms Sikes, who became a popular figure on TikTok because of the videos she posted during the rush, said she felt “disappointed” with the film. Compared to the dramatic trailer that proclaimed, “This documentary could spell the end of Greek life as we know it,” the finished product falls short, she said.
“Nothing they talked about wasn’t already known or something you couldn’t google yourself,” said Ms Sikes, 20. “It wasn’t a documentary about Bama Rush at all! It was a documentary about a bunch of girls and their lives.”
“A lot of people were really hoping that this would bring things out into the open so that change could take place,” she continued, adding that she wished “Bama Rush” had explored issues like racism, homophobia, fatphobia and bullying more deeply .
Rumors circulated during the stampede that Ms Sikes was a “documentary factory”, an untruth which she says may have hurt her chances of making the stampede.
“Why would a chapter even want to talk to me if it thought I was the plant?” said Ms. Sikes, who is non-binary. “I was like, ‘Do you really think I was sent here to mingle with a bunch of blonde hotties?’ Come on.'”
At the end of the process, she was not invited to join a sorority, having been expelled from most houses at an early age. According to DMs reviewed by The New York Times, Ms Fleit contacted Ms Sikes about the film in August. The couple never spoke to each other and Ms Sikes was not involved in the film.
Only two of the characters in the film successfully joined a sorority. One of them stopped attending the film when the rush began.
On TikTok, some viewers have criticized Ms Fleit for including her own experiences with alopecia and wearing a wig as a plot point in the film. “I really hate how the director of ‘Bama Rush’ did that about her,” one user wrote in a video.
The director defended her decision to become part of the story.
“In order for me to express the empathy I had for what these young women were facing,” Ms. Fleit said, “I had to stand side by side with them and say, ‘You know what? Me too. I did it to fit in.’”