THE STORY – After losing their sons to fraternity hazing, three families begin a relentless public fight for change, turning their personal tragedies into a movement. Refusing to accept that their children died in vain, they join together in waging a multi-year battle to expose an entrenched system mired in denial and secrecy, challenging both the fraternities and universities to be held accountable.
THE CAST – Gary DeVercelly, Julie DeVercelly, Eric Oakes, Linda Oakes, TJ Burch & Kim Burch
THE TEAM – Daniel E Catullo III (Director)
THE RUNNING TIME – 111 Minutes
Colleges and universities have been a part of American culture since its inception. Over the last 250 years, families have sent their teens away to pursue a formal education, becoming thoughtful young individuals with expertise in a chosen field and the skills to build a career. Since 1776, fraternities have become a staple at several American colleges and are considered a rite of passage. Some students want to attend a specific school for Greek life. They fantasize about living in the fraternity or sorority house and becoming someone’s Little Brother/Sister. But there are secret bylaws and rituals that have been instituted within these fraternities and sororities. And these rituals, when left unchecked, are deadly.
For anyone who has seen a movie about American college or attended a four-year university, hazing comes right alongside Greek life. There are the obvious elements of hazing – the initiation process involving someone who is subjected to unpleasant tricks or forced to do unpleasant or unsafe things, such as excessive drinking, humiliating actions, and embarrassing pranks, but these actions go far beyond anything entertaining. As director Daniel E. Catullo III states in his film “4000 Days,” fraternity hazing has killed over 300 college students, with countless more enduring serious injuries and mental health issues. However, the true number of those killed and harmed will never be known due to the lack of reporting and a culture of silence.
“4000 Days” centers around three families who have tragically lost their sons (all to alcohol poisoning) due to hazing in different years at different universities. In the wake of their sons’ deaths, they decide to turn their grief into action to set a new reform that would require universities to document all hazing incidents and make these reports publicly available to the parents and student body. The title, “4000 Days,” highlights the length it took for them to achieve that goal, starting when Gary and Julie DeVercelly joined the Board of the Clery Center to address hazing on the national level. What makes the film worthwhile is not only the immense education that Americans, and especially young people, need, but also a testament to parents’ love and resilience in making sure that their children did not die in vain.
Gary and Julie DeVercelly, who lost their son Gary Jr. in 2007 at Rider University, seem like the veterans and guardians of the bill. It was Gary Jr.’s death that started this mission, and Catullo allows them to educate the audience on what is at stake. The DeVercellys showcase the immense problem with universities allowing underage young men to be in charge of homes where excessive underage drinking occurs, and how everyone points their finger at someone else when a tragedy occurs. Over the past few years, the DeVercellys have become accustomed to making the many trips to Washington, D.C., with Gary Jr’s picture and sharing their story. But they also take on the role of leaders and mentors to other parents who have recently lost their children to hazing. This showcases that the DeVercellys are right: death via hazing is a serious problem that keeps occurring, and it must stop.
Within the three families, Catullo presents three different avenues to address this problem. While the DeVercellys are in the nation’s capital with politicians, Eric Oakes is touring college campuses. Eric and his wife Linda are recent members of the group who lost their only son, Adam, in 2021 at Virginia University. But instead of charging the young men responsible for Adam’s death and sentencing them to prison, he chose restorative justice, where Adam’s pledge master and former big brother must participate in educational presentations about Adam’s case and the cost of hazing side by side with him. Eric represents the immense effort to forgive, as he states that he wants Adam’s peers to understand what happened to him, and these sequences in which the fraternity is forced to face the consequences of their actions are among the film’s strongest moments.
Even though “4000 Days” is technically a political documentary, Catullo keeps the humanity well alive as the direction and editing turn what could have been a very factual film into an incredibly easy-to-follow one. It is always apparent that even though these families are putting on a strong front for their audience, they are on a never-ending journey of grieving a child who died in such a careless way. Catullo provides his audience with intimate police footage and interviews with Adam and Gary Jr’s university and national Greek life representatives to showcase the lack of regulations under which these fraternities operate. At the end of the day, they are simply parents trying to make the impossible make some sort of sense. Some of the most heart-wrenching moments are scenes where Eric and his niece return to the house where Adam died to see the location where he slowly died, which is still used as the fraternity home.
The purpose of fraternities is to make young men into functional members of society and bond them into a brotherhood that supports one another as they embark on careers and adulthood. Still, somehow, along the way, American culture forgot that. “4000 Days” is a stunning call to action to address the political, economic, and cultural problems America faces. On the surface, it may be about this seismic issue, or it may be about immense loss. But when one takes a closer look, “4000 Days” is a story about resilience, an ordinary parent’s love, and the possibility of creating positive change from a tragedy.
