'Born into Brothels' raises awareness for oppressed children
The film highlights work of children from India's Red Light District.
Published Sept. 25, 2009
Four years ago, director Zana Briski moved audiences across the world with footage of her time spent in the Red Light District of Sonagachi, Calcutta in the documentary, "Born into Brothels."
This award-winning documentary was shown at Wednesday at Memorial Union. Stop Traffic Now, an organization devoted to raising awareness in the student community about what human trafficking is and what students can do to help stop it, hosted the showing.
Directed by Briski and Ross Kauffman, "Born into Brothels" focuses on the children of the prostitutes living in the Red Light District. This unique perspective is what sets the documentary apart from other films of its kind.
Briski lived in the district for several years getting to know the children of the area and capturing footage of their everyday lives.
Her original purpose for traveling to Sonagachi was to document the prostitution happening across the area, but found it vanished the minute a camera appeared, as citizens of the Red Light District were terrified of being caught. What Briski did find, though, were the children of the Red Light District, the children of prostitutes, which is where she came about the idea to help these children in any way she could.
It was after Briski had lived among the children of the brothels she came about the idea to get them out of the Red Light District by teaching them photography, hoping to bring about a little pride amid what she calls an inherently abusive place.
The film focuses on eight children of the Red Light District, all of who are taught to take and edit photos by Briski. She helps bring out the natural intelligence of the children as they use the camera to see their world in a different way. One boy, Avijit, was so talented he was chosen to travel to Amsterdam for an exhibition of photography by children.
Footage is artistically scattered throughout the documentary of these kids taking pictures in their homes and around their town, giving the audience a look at the brothel through the eyes of children.
As the film progresses, Briski shows multiple clips of her attempts to liberate the children from the district by sending them to boarding school. This proves to be a daunting task as many schools will not take them simply because they are from the Red Light District. And even when Briski does find schools willing to accept the children, she is then met with opposition by their parents who want their kids to stay in the brothel, as they can be used as a source of income.
By the end of the movie, it is clear Briski has ultimately changed the lives of the children for the better. Three of them even stayed in the boarding schools to receive an education that will give them a chance at a better life. Other children were pulled out of the schools by their parents or left at their own will.
The documentary easily leaves an impression on all of its viewers as the closing scene reveals the smiling, innocent faces of the children of the Red Light District, most of who by now have lost their childhoods forever.
" 'Born into Brothels' is not extremely well-known, which is part of the reason we wanted to show it," Stop Traffic Co-chairwoman Brittany Heenan said. "It has huge potential to raise awareness and we wanted to try something different. There are plenty of films people are familiar with that incorporate human trafficking, such as 'Slumdog Millionaire' and 'Taken.' We just wanted to show people something new."
During the screening of the documentary, Heenan also said another reason "Born into Brothels" is so powerful is because it is real. It does not reflect a writer's view but is instead told entirely from the viewpoint of real children living in the heart of India's Red Light District.