Forbidden Wedding: When a paralyzed man is forbidden from marrying by the Catholic Church of Patrocinio, Brazil, on the grounds that he cannot copulate, the community rallies around him.At age fifteen, a bullet tore through Hedir Antonio de Brito's body, paralyzing him from the waist down. Twenty years later, he met Mara. They were to be wed. He sent out wedding invitations and applied for a marriage certificate from the Roman Catholic Church.
But forty days before the wedding, Hedir got an unexpected letter from the Catholic Church of Patrocinio, Brazil. His marriage application was denied on the grounds that as a paraplegic he could not copulate, a decision based on the Vatican's Canon Law 1084.
Filmmaker Flavia Fontes talked to the couple, their families, the local priests as well as people in their small Brazilian town. Many were afraid to speak their minds in the shadow of the Catholic Church, but they eventually expressed their outrage at a situation that put love and faith on opposite sides. Told entirely through their voices with no narration, Forbidden Wedding unfolds into a gentle love story about human sexuality, the frailties of faith, the rights of the disabled, and the magic of the heart.
But forty days before the wedding, Hedir got an unexpected letter from the Catholic Church of Patrocinio, Brazil. His marriage application was denied on the grounds that as a paraplegic he could not copulate, a decision based on the Vatican's Canon Law 1084.
Filmmaker Flavia Fontes talked to the couple, their families, the local priests as well as people in their small Brazilian town. Many were afraid to speak their minds in the shadow of the Catholic Church, but they eventually expressed their outrage at a situation that put love and faith on opposite sides. Told entirely through their voices with no narration, Forbidden Wedding unfolds into a gentle love story about human sexuality, the frailties of faith, the rights of the disabled, and the magic of the heart.
Interview with director Flavia Fontes: http://www.linktv.org/video/2410/interview-with-director-flavia-fontes
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