Salamanders: A Night at the Phi Delt House - George Hornbein, Marie Hornbein, Tom Keiter, Kenneth Thigpen

Film by George Hornbein, Marie Hornbein, Tom Keiter, Kenneth Thigpen
Produced by George Hornbein and Ken Thigpen
Cinematographer: George Hornbein
Sound: Tom Keiter and Marie Hornbein. Audio mix Tom Keiter.
Editing: George Hornbein
Copyright: 1982, Documentary Resource Center, Inc.
12 minutes, Color

Salamanders

Scrolling through the Folkstreams archive I stumbled upon this short film. It tells of fraternal traditions, focusing on the rather dubious act of swallowing living salamanders during a weekend of heavy partying (the tradition itself being slightly adapted after complaint's by the local animal rights group (from now on the creatures where "humanely" killed using CO2 gas)).
Without any narration and mostly filled with shouting and brawling youngsters, this might not be the most elevating documentary, but still it deals with American tradition's and therefore is an additive to the Folkstreams archive.
I would have liked to see some more background information on where and how this ritual originated, for instance. Just showing these youngster doing there thing for a mere 10 minutes isn't enough to really get the idea, I guess.

For those who are interested in fraternity's in the 80's and there rituals, this might be a small recommendation.