Burning Sands

Every weekend for my Netflix writing class, each student choses a Netflix original movie or show to view and then write a blog post over. This week for my assignment, I watched a movie called Burning Sands. This movie depicts the intensity and dangers of students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) who attempt to join sororities or fraternities. The movie follows the story of Zurich, a new pledge who comes from a history of Lambda Lambda Phi brothers, as he loses his relationship with his girlfriend and falls behind in his coursework. I feel like you would appreciate the movie a lot. I feel like it’s the type of movie that you would add to your wide collection of movies and watch a few times.

Do you remember that Alpha Phi Alpha HBCU college tour that I went on during my senior year? Well this movie reminded me a lot of that trip. Since that tour was hosted by the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and essentially co-hosted by the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, we learned a LOT about pledging during that week. However,  I remember very clearly how reluctant that the alumni were to speak on their experiences with hazing. I’ll never forget what one AKA woman said to a group of us about that subject in particular. She told us that you can avoid the violence and humiliation of hazing, but you won’t have any respect among the sorority or fraternity. Your brothers or sisters will refer to you as just “paper” because your commitment to the organization was only on paper. In Burning Sands, the pledges couldn’t speak to anyone about what they were experiencing, and this is how I imagine it is for most pledgees.

Of course people hear about hazing and its dangers, but this movie gave a new, personal perspective on what actually happens and how it affects the lives of students.

I know that this movie has to be somewhat of an exaggeration because (spoiler alert!) one of the pledges dies on Hell Night, the last night that pledges needed to complete  before they were officially members of  Lambda Lambda Phi. I know that death in these situations is an occurrence that happens more than anyone would like to admit, but I’m confident that it doesn’t happen all too frequently.  

Another reason that I enjoyed Burning Sands is because it reminded me as to why I wanted so badly to attend an HBCU in high school. I have forgotten how different the social aspects are at HBCUs versus at a school like Truman. I also imagine that hazing at Truman isn’t nearly on the same level that it was depicted in the movie. Also, greek life here is way different than I expected. I remember at the college tours how each organization had either a square on a sidewalk or a certain bench or tree with their artwork on it, and non-members weren’t allowed to trespass on this area at all.

All in all, Burning Sands gave me something interesting to compare my current college experience with, as well as my pre-college expectations. The next time that I’m home, we should watch it so that you can see it for yourself.