Event | UVA Arts

In collaboration with The Paramount Theater, we are thrilled to present an encore screening of PEP BANNED, which had its world premiere before a sold-out audience at the 2025 Virginia Film Festival.

For nearly thirty years, the University of Virginia Pep Band was one of the University’s most revered (and irreverent) institutions. With a penchant for silliness and mockery, their performances jabbed at everything from rival teams and political figures to the University itself. Ultimately, it was this anything-goes approach to antics and jokes that led to their permanent barring from all university events in 2003.

Years in the making, co-directors Chris Farina (World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements) and Bill Reifenberger’s documentary tracks the rise and fall of the Pep Band, piecing together its madcap legacy through the accounts of former members, administrators, and fans.

Discussion with members of the band and filmmakers to follow...