Recommend a documentary (marriage, religion)

[Green Gaia]

Born Into Brothels

This Oscar-winning documentary is a portrait of several unforgettable children who live in Calcutta's red-light district, where their mothers work as prostitutes. Spurred by the kids' fascination with her camera, Zana Briski, a photographer documenting life in the brothels, decides to teach them photography. As they begin to look at and record their world through new eyes, the kids awaken to their own talents and sense of worth.

Heartbreaking.

[Green Gaia]

The Weather Underground

A sobering documentary about a group of 1960s "committed freedom fighters" known as The Weather Underground. A radical offshoot of the Students for a Democratic Society, the Weathermen didn't just march or sit in; they rioted and bombed -- not to change the American political scene but rather to destroy it. The organization was part of a global trend of revolution that sprang from the belief that not acting against violence is violence.

I admire their idealism, but abhor the violence they promoted and engaged in.

[Green Gaia]

Dark Days

Documentarian Marc Singer focuses his camera on a group of homeless people who live deep underground in an abandoned New York City railroad tunnel. By day, they scavenge for food on the mean streets of Manhattan. At night, they retreat to the tunnel, where they've built huts out of scrap metal, plastic and plywood. Amazingly, they have electricity, furniture, working kitchens and a sense of community many surface dwellers would envy.

[Nanda]

I watched "Friends of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi," an HBO Documentary about Evangelicals in America, twice this past month, and found it really interesting. It was better than "Jesus Camp," I thought, because it encompassed a much broader range of people - most of whom didn't seem completely crazy.

[Rough_ER]

A good oldie that I've been watching again recently is Michael Palin's superb "Around the World in 80 Days". If you haven't seen the entire series then I suggest you get them on DVD. Thoroughly enjoyable, A+!