New York, NY | July 2015 — Misadventurist Media, a globe-trotting digital production team, is raising funds on Kickstarter to complete the first two episodes of their travel Web series, I Do: A Wedding of Cultures. The series explores the most unique wedding traditions all around the world and follows the people behind them.
In a country divided by what “traditional marriage” means and a rapidly declining marriage rate among Millennials, I Do: A Wedding of Cultures asks people around the world if and why marriage traditions are still important. Along the way it introduces the viewer to unexpected destinations, colorful traditions and fascinating people.
Misadventurist Media set a Kickstarter funding goal of $7,000 for editing and translation of the pilot episode, filmed in Cambodia, and production costs for Episode 2, planned for this year in Maramures, Romania.
THE STORY – A married couple who had no wedding of their own drop everything, quit their well-paying 9-5 jobs in Manhattan, and set out to explore wedding traditions around the globe. It might sound strange. But it also happens to be true.
The couple behind Misadventurist Media consciously avoided having a wedding.
Quote: “At the time, we couldn’t conceive why two young people today with school loans hanging over their heads would put thousands of dollars into a ceremony with traditions no one really understands, and hardly anyone we knew cared about.” Co-director and Producer Benjamin Spencer
A few years later, the couple was living and working in New York City. They wanted to join forces and make documentaries out in the world, but they were also snuggled happily into their Brooklyn neighborhood. Every time they went to another of their friends’ weddings, though, the above question bothered them.
They started to wonder: did people in ancient cultures have the same questions about wedding traditions? Are people holding onto traditions, or is globalization and the spread of Western culture inevitably replacing old ways? I Do: A Wedding of Cultures was born.
THE JOURNEY – Their experiences documenting a Cambodian family preparing for and celebrating a wedding in Phnom Penh have profoundly deepened the filmmakers’ appreciation of ancient wedding traditions. Most Khmer weddings follow a template that has altered little since the founding of their country during the days of the first Khmer kings over a thousand years ago.
Quote: “If there’s one thing we’ve discovered between the time we were shooting our pilot In Cambodia – a country where 40 years ago, weddings were banned by the Khmer Rouge – and when we returned to an America in the midst of the same-sex marriage debate, it’s this: whether it’s personal or political, a wedding is a statement. And so are the traditions we choose to enact.” – Director and Producer Stacy Libokmeto
The wedding ceremony stretched over two (very) full days and was above all an expression of a culture, and a people, that refuse to be erased from the history books. The family was extremely open and wanted very much to share what the traditions meant to them. The filmmakers want to share their journey -and more stories like these from cultures around the world – to a wider audience.
Kickstarter Page: www.kickstarter.com
Contacts:
Stacy Libokmeto
Benjamin J. Spencer
Founders, Misadventurist Media
misadventuristfilms@gmail.com
misadventuristfilms.com
