Deep in the Heart of Pain: Dan O'Rourke's The Pledge

By Hank Nuwer

A new tradition of fighting hazing through documentary making has emerged again.

The trend started with "Unless a Death Occurs," a Public Television project out of Plattsburgh, New York, in which fraternity members involved in the water torture death of pledge Walter Dean Jennings agreed to go on film in exchange for reduced or no jail time.

Then there was Hazed, the in-production documentary sponsored by the Gordie Foundation, whose release is said to be imminent in 2008.

Now, in this column, the family of deceased pledge Phanta (Jack) Phoummarath has taken public video documents from Jack's Lambda Phi Epsilon deadly initiation and commissioned filmmaker Dan O'Rourke to tell the story in the accompanying video The Pledge. It I every bit as powerful and educational as "Unless a Death Occurs."

Hard hitting and sad, the film leaves the viewer with a sense of the waste of an incredible human being, but it also leaves no doubt that Phoummarath's faith in the brothers of Lambda Phi Epsilon was horrifically misplaced.

The message is clear. A pattern of heavy drinking in alcohol initiations can and will kill you.

Here is the link to the video. A special thanks to filmmaker O'Rourke for permission to use.

You'll need the free Flash plugin to view the video.