What Haunts Us

Good doc about the abuses at a school but misleading in the tagline. The suicides are glossed over and barely mentioned.

Through an unsettling look into the dark history of Porter Gaud High School, Paige Goldberg Tolmach has a created a film of incredible relevance, one which is entirely unafraid to expose the truths behind a scandal which still effects persons to this very day. Here, the perspective is unflinching with horrific details of sexual abuse, suicide, and personal recounting from victims, activists, and perpetrators alike all without a loss of focus. Clearly, it's a subject very close to the heart of Tolmach, a personal project which has been made with the upmost care, concern, and dedication. For a small production team, everything is incredibly professional from the editing, cinematography, animation, and even Tolmach's own voiceover. Everything here is exactly what the title claims, haunting. I don't believe I'll forget the sentiments here anytime soon, for I have been profoundly impacted by the results. Truly a documentary worthy of its title.

I watched this documentary with open eyes. It is easy to say that in the "good old days" these predators had it easy. However, in this film, the high school is a Charleston prep school, filled with talented and often entitled children.

What happened there could happen anywhere--but it was made worse by the status of the school which was willing to hide its secrets to avoid public shame. This didn't work--the rate of suicides of men in the one class is just a leading indicator of the trauma caused by Eddie Fischer and his Citadel buddy Major Anderson. There are other indicators that are have different measures--addiction, cascading abuse perpetrated by victims, among them.

The courage and clarity of Guerry Glover stands out in this film. The director who is an alumnus and had her own story of hearing about the abuse but not reporting it, underlines the ending. This institutional abuse is made more scarring by the refusal of people to stand up and make reports.

That is the specter that haunts us all even if we have never been to Charleston, South Carolina.

Provoking, heartfelt, thoughtful and eye opening; every parent and every school in the world should watch this film. Every school should have a screening and a discussion with the high school level student body. Providing a safe atmosphere with knowledge, flushing out ideas and providing a trusting place to communicate and offer help to those who have been affected, are affected and suffering.

The 1979 class of Porter Gaud School in Charleston, South Carolina graduated 49 boys. Within the last 35 years, six of them have committed suicide. When Paige Goldberg Tolmach gets word that another former student from her beloved high school has killed himself, she decides to take a deep dive into her past in order to uncover the surprising truth and finally release the ghosts that haunt her hometown to this day.

It's a very old story, re-told in an uber-dramatic way by Paige Goldberg Tolmach who clearly wants to make a name for herself. In fact, she inserts herself into the story anywhere she can. It's sort of despicible.

And some of her self-accounts are suspicious. Like driving in a car on a date with an older boy wo tells her he likes to hang out at with the coach who shows him adult movies and touches him. It's a bit difficult to believe a teenager is this naive.

The guy clearly did it. He's on video admitting it. And he only got 20 years. Maybe THAT should have been the story.