Joseph Sorge is a professor-turned-entrepreneur-turned-writer/director. His latest project is Divorce Corp, a documentary that takes a hard look at the destructive forces impacting the divorce industry. The film premieres January 10th in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and other cities across the nation. Wevorce recently caught up with the M.I.T. and Harvard-educated filmmaker to learn what telling this story taught him and what hope he sees for divorcing couples.
What was the genesis of Divorce Corp?
I had some personal experience in the family courts. Thankfully, my personal experience was not as traumatic as what we show in the film, but I definitely sensed that there was some funny business going on in the courts that didn’t have much to do with justice. I hired a researcher to fully understand the industry beyond my personal experience. My suspicions, unfortunately, were confirmed and I knew this was a story that had to be told.
How long have you been working on the film?
Three years. That includes extensive research, traveling all over the world to conduct interviews, and all the post-production work such as editing.
What surprised you during the making of Divorce Corp?
What surprised me the most was Scandinavia. They just practice divorce so differently. We were shocked shocked in a good way at how different it is. Very few divorce cases go to court. Instead, the couple meets with someone they both trust, often a priest, counselor, or family member, to work out the issues.
They don’t have battles in the courts for divorce or child custody. We interviewed a judge there who said she sees an average of two divorce cases a year. Just two each year! In many U.S. courts, judges see 100 cases every month.
Do you see these difference between their approach and the American approach as cultural or as part of the systemic legacy?
Well, they definitely have a culture of equality. They take pride in everyone being treated equally. That’s a big part of it. But the other part is that there’s no money [to be made] in divorce. Custody is done in a caring and loving way. If there’s alimony involved, it’s normally only paid during the divorce process itself. If child support is paid by either party, it is typically because one partner is out of work. The amount is normally nominal. The result is they don’t get into courtroom battles like we get into battles here in the United States.
Any other surprises?
I was really shocked at how many people are not allowed to see their children. We met people who haven’t seen their children in years. Obviously, each of these cases is unique and had their own set of circumstances, but we just could not believe the propensity the courts have for selecting one parent over the other.
There’s also an inclination on part of the court to not only award child support, but also to enforce it. It impacts their budgets. I’m not saying that people don’t need to pay child support, but there are some financial incentives in places that aren’t necessarily in the best interest of the families.
The financial incentives are all wrong on multiple levels.
What impact do you hope this film will have?
My personal interest is primarily as a filmmaker, simply to tell the story. Of course, I would like to see some reform. We are working on organizing a conference where we will be inviting speakers on all sides of the debate to give their opinions on what they think is workable and what is not. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring some of these proposed changes to lawmakers.
I have a book coming out in a few weeks, also called “Divorce Corp.” In it I outline five tenets of divorce reform. They’re definitely not the end-all, be-all, but I hope the book, the film and, eventual the conference, will help catalyze discussion.
There’s been some controversy surrounding the film, including accusations that it is advocating presumptive joint custody or specific father’s rights. What is your response to that?
The groups that are saying that have not seen the film. They’re basing their comments on a few clips we posted on the internet. We are not gender motivated.
If anything, we advocate taking the money out of the system, particularly the custody battles. It would benefit everyone except the lawyers and the courts. That way there’s no motivation to make false accusations. No incentives for one spouse to accuse the other of horrible crimes in order to gain custody of the children. Obviously, if there’s evidence of a crime, that crime must be investigated by professional law enforcement and criminal courts, but not necessarily family law courts. Right now it’s an adversarial system where you can win money if you can convince the family court judge your spouse is in the wrong. That doesn’t work.
I’d invite those groups who disagree with me to come to our conference and voice their concerns. We should all be working together to find solutions.
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More information about Divorce Corp, including theater listings, is available at www.DivorceCorp.com.
