Marriage Videos - The Documentary Network

America’s booming divorce business

Documentary.net staff — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 20:29:15 +0000

There are one million divorces in the United States every year—that's one every 36 seconds, nearly 2,400 per day, and 16,800 per week. It's hardly surprising, then, that the divorce industry is worth a whopping $50 billion annually—that's a hell of lot of heartbreak. We delve into the growing industry offering people alternative ways to split. In the divorce capital of the world, New York City, we explore the industries making heartbreak bearable and learn that—whether it's divorce merchandise, "conscious uncoupling," or "reverse-wedding" planning—people's attitudes toward the sanctity of marriage are changing, while Americans in particular are adopting new-age rituals as a way to call time on their relationships.

Love Commandos in India

Documentary.net staff — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 10:31:11 +0000

In traditional India, love that dishonours family can lead to death. These so-called “honour killings” are illegal in India, but that hasn’t stopped the practice. Nooren, a Muslim, and Rahul, a Hindu, fell in love while working together at a cell phone store. They kept their romance a secret, but when Nooren’s family found out, they threatened to kill the couple. “We talked to her parents but they both denied for our relationship. And they told us if you think about marriage or carry on your relationship forward then we will attempt suicide or kill you,” says Rahul. Nooren’s parents locked her up inside the family home to keep the couple apart. But the first chance she got to escape, she met up with Rahul and they took off in a rental car. No matter what happens now, Nooren and Rahul know they can never go back home. “Everybody is sitting in the town. Hundreds of people. Waiting when will we get there and they will kill us. They want to kill us,” Rahul says. “Love Commandoes have saved us.” Those “Love Commandos” are volunteers based in India’s capital city, New Delphi, who rescue and protect young couples in danger. They provide a safe house to protect couples on the run. “Love is not a crime,” says Rahul. “But the government is not supporting us. That is why cops are searching for us. Just two days ago her brothers came looking for us with the police.”

Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan

Documentary.net staff — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:30:14 +0000

In the Issyk-Kul region of Kyrgyzstan, tradition is king. Polo's still played with a freshly killed goat and the men still marry their women the old-fashioned way: by abducting them off the street and forcing them to be their wife. Bride kidnapping is a supposedly ancient custom that's made a major comeback since the fall of Communism and now accounts for nearly half of all marriages in some parts of the country. We travel to the Kyrgyz countryside to follow/aid and abet a young groom named Kubanti as he surprised his teenage girlfriend Nazgul with the gift of marriage/kidnapping.

Till Death Do Us Part – Divorce still banned in the Philippines

Documentary.net staff — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 15:40:01 +0000

The Philippines is the last country in the world, along with the Vatican City, where divorce is banned, but the revival of a long dormant bill may change that. The Gabriela Women's Party recently raised the divorce bill in the Philippines House of Representatives, much to the strong opposition of the conservative Roman Catholic Church, which argues that it will lead to an erosion of the traditional family structure. But supporters of the bill disagree, saying couples need a way out of unhappy and abusive marriages without circumventing the law.