  |
||
|
||
|
Title: Some kind of arrangement Reference: Director, Ali Kazimi; Producers, Karen
King, Gerry Flahive, and Claire Priesto (all for NFB) and Geeta Sondhi.
Abstract: Follows three young people, Preety, a Hindu woman, Hanif, a Muslim man, and Rajni, a Punjabi woman, who have chosen arranged marriages. Against the background of Preety’s marriage to Dimple, a young man from Nashville, each explains their reasons for choosing an arranged marriage, their experiences of the process – Hanif’s aunt in Toronto acts as matchmaker, and Rajni advertises—and their expectations of marriage and the future. Library of Congress subjects: Sociology subjects: Reviews and Numerical Ratings (3) This video is very good, quite interesting and engaging, and well-produced. It nicely shows the situations of the protagonists in all their complexity. Presented in first-person perspective. Good video for any undergraduate. Brian Fuller (2.5) This film brings you into a different culture of love & marriage from what we’re used to. It focuses on East Indian culture, specifically showing the intrinsic ways in which marriage is arranged, through parents and relatives. I found some major differences, actually. One that I underlined is that instead of the Western Hollywood romance ideology in which love is sought first and the rest falls into place, here in arranged marriage, the main issue is to arrange a future together, with issues like economic and educational status considered. Love is expected to come after. Also, there’s more collective involvement: arranged marriage has marriage as its sole purpose, whereas we go into courting to date and not necessarily to marry. I was very interested and engaged with the festivities and rituals, I liked the Indian music, and I felt I was able to understand a different culture and appreciate difference & diversity. But I saw there was kind of a Western influence - e.g., in one scene at a marriage, the groom changed into a Western suit and there was Western music played – so I saw people holding onto their culture but also assimilating in some ways. The video brought to life some of the misconceptions about arranged marriage. I think we see it as coercive, but I saw a high degree of choice here, even among the three people’s parents, who also spoke of having choice (so that wasn’t because the three people were children of immigrants). There was one case (the third) that I thought was irrelevant to the content of the video: she was more on a quest for love, and to me that didn’t reflect arranged marriage; also, her parents weren’t very much involved. I would’ve liked to see other cultures’ arranged marriages as well, not only East Indian culture, which was the focus. Also, I’d like to see what happens after the marriage: if they don’t go into it for love, does love happen after? What are the dynamics like, in comparison to Western marriages? Marsha McQueen (undergraduate) (2.5) A rather long video that engages through suspense: I wanted to know the outcome for each person. Since the narrative alternates amongst their stories, it would be difficult to watch just part of it. The diversity of the protagonists’ backgrounds, the diverse practices they use (including personal ads), and the blunt arguments between one protagonist and her two sisters about Indian-ness are what I liked most. But we do have to listen to quite a few set pieces, especially from one quite sententious protagonist, and the video’s project of explaining arranged marriage has a bit of a voyeuristic feel. I don’t know that I could sit through something this long on un-arranged marriages. Kathy Bischoping (4) This film effectively captures the internal identity
conflict of second generation South Asians in Canada. It also reveals
how traditional marriage practices have both changed and stayed the
same. In the beginning of the film, the contemporary practice of arranged
marriage appears to be little more than an introduction service; however,
by the end of the film all of the cases expose the patriarchal customs
that are still present. The best part of the film is how open and honest
those being filmed were able to speak about their experience. Sarah
Newman
About the project | Book a video for class | Enter the Library Catalogue | Send us feedback | Back to main | ||
