J & I reviewed Born Into Brothels,winner of this year's Academy Award for best documentary.
The film was directed by British photojournalist Zana Briski and US film editor Ross Kauffman.Born Into Brothelsfollows Briski's project of teaching photography to a group of children who live in Sonagachhi--Calcutta, India's red-light district--as well as Briski's efforts to get these children of sex workers admitted into boarding schools.
The children—the girls Suchitra, Tapasi, Shanti, Puja, and Kochi, and the boys Gour, Manik, and Avijit—take time away from their schoolwork and chores to photograph their world and to critique their own and each other's photos. They also accompany Briski on trips to the ocean and the zoo. Some of the children are quite talented—one of Suchitra's photos is featured on the cover of an Amnesty International calendar, and Avijit is invited by the World Press Photo Foundation in Amsterdam to be part of their Children's Jury in 2002. The children's work has been auctioned at Sotheby's, and is featured in a book documenting the project as well. Proceeds from these ventures are returned to the children though the Kids With Cameras foundation, which Briski set up to support similar projects around the world. A current Kids with Cameras project is developing an arts school for the children of the Sonagachhi area.
Born Into Brothels has been praised for its stunning visuals, for the heartwarming charm of the children, for its presentation of the saving powers or art and creativity, and for the small but uplifting triumphs of Briski's outreach work. Moreover, the filmmakers' interest in returning profits to the Sonagachhi community is a commendable attempt to avoid the dangers of exploitation attendant on such documentary projects.
On the other hand, the film has also been criticized on several counts. Partha Banerjee, who worked as a translator on the film, chiefly during post-production, has noted publicly that some of the film's scenes are staged, and he calls the film's music choices “troubling,” both for the use of glitzy Bollywood tunes, and for the unacknowledged lifting of the final tune from Oscar-winning Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray's celebrated Apu Trilogy. Further, Banerjee observes that Born Into Brothels fails to inform viewers that the Sonagachhi district has benefited from years of activism by sex workers themselves as well as by local social workers, medical practitioners, and other activists. For instance, the sex workers and their allies have set up financial institutions, health clinics, sex education schools, and blood banks in the district, and the HIV rate among sex workers in Sonagachhi is only 5% instead of 80% as in other areas like Mumbai.
Journalist Sabyasachi Bandopadhyay, writing in Indian Express, notes that Indian activists including film director Gautam Ghosh, novelist Samaresh Majumder, bureaucrat Nitin Ganguly and University professor Mani Nag have helped set up workshops, schools, clinics, and day-care centers in Sonagachhi. In addition, much work has been done by the Durbar Women's Coordination Committee, an umbrella organization of sex workers in West Bengal, which has 65,000 members.
Journalist Seema Sirohi, writing for OutlookIndia, notes that some members of the Durbar Committee have complained about feeling “used” by Briski's work, and that others have questioned whether the filmmakers obtained legal permissions from the sex workers involved in the film. Briski and Kauffman have said that they will not be screening Born Into Brothels in India, because many of the children's mothers asked for their identities to be protected. Sirohi notes that other activists who helped Briski would like the opportunity to see the film, and that international screenings do not precisely “protect” the identities of those in the film.
