Courtship and Marriage is a short educational film from the late 1950s or early 1960s that shows the courting traditions of couples from Sicily, Iran, Canada, and India. Dr. Frank Jones, Danica d’Hondt, and Gordon Burwash host the film and screen short films of each couple while providing commentary on the courtship traditions from each culture. The second part of the film starts with a look at courtship in Canada. Young men and women ice skate on a pond or rink in Richmond Hill, a small town north of Toronto. Jane and Doug hold hands as they skate. The young couple arrive at Jane’s house (00:55). Jane’s parents read in their bed. Jane cuddles Doug on the couch in the living room (02:14), then she kisses Doug goodbye. The couple dance at their final high school prom (03:10). Viewers see other high schoolers dancing in the auditorium. Doug helps a customer while working at a bank (05:38). Jane is shown filing at an insurance company office. Doug and Jane walk through a park in the cool autumn; Doug takes out a ring and proposes to Jane (07:47). The couple go to Jane’s house and tell her parents about the engagement. The film then shows Jane’s bridal shower, where she talks with a friend in a kitchen, as other women mill about and look at the gifts (08:57). Doug’s friends toast him at his bachelor party. People gather around Doug and Jane during their engagement party. The film then cuts to a screening room where Jones, d’Hondt, and Burwash talk about the traditions of cultures and how that plays a role in courting and marriage in Canada. The film then moves to the final examination of courtship, following a couple in the village of Kerala in southwest India. Men move a boat along a river (13:21). A man rides an elephant as it pulls logs at a lumber yard (13:58). A worker cuts down coconuts. At an evening dance (14:44), Bilan and Rumani are able to steal glances at each other. The dancers wear masks and costumes and perform for the crowd. Women spin coconut fiber into a yarn (15:28). Rumani carries a bundle of yarn to a boat and then uses the boat to transport the yarn to the factory. Romani looks at a textile at the factory and smiles at Bilan (16:40). Bilan pets a small cow as he walks home. Bilan enters his small house (17:25); his sister pours him a drink, and then he sits on the floor with his mother. She talks to him about marriage. He learns that the person his parents want for his wife is Rumani. Bilan’s uncle and friend climb out of a boat and walk to Rumani’s house to talk to her parents as a sort of “investigation” of Rumani and to gauge interest in a marriage (18:40). The men display marks of the Hindu caste. Rumani’s mother shows the men Rumani’s embroidery work. Rumani does her hair and makeup prior to her one brief interaction with her fiancé (20:42). She goes out to the porch of the house to serve a snack to Bilan and his friend and talk with her fiancé. Inside a hut, the village astrologer casts the horoscopes of Bilan and Rumani to determine if the marriage would be auspicious (22:42). He chants while sitting on the floor, surrounded by men, and points to different markings on a wooden board. The film cuts back to the evening dance as the crowd watches the performance (24:10), then the film cuts back to the screening room, where Jones, d’Hondt, and Burwash discuss society and family customs of courtship in India. They talk about the differences of the courtship between the four examples of courtship and deliver their concluding remarks.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com