| Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Zana Briski Ross Kauffman |
| Produced by | Zana Briski Ross Kauffman |
| Written by | Zana Briski Ross Kauffman |
| Starring | Shanti Das Puja Mukerjee Avijit Halder Suchitra |
| Music by | John McDowell |
| Cinematography | Zana Briski Ross Kauffman |
| Editing by | Ross Kauffman |
| Release date(s) | January 17, 2004 (Sundance) December 8, 2005 |
| Running time | 85 minutes |
| Language | Bengali English |
| Box office | $3,515,061 (USA) [1] |
Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids is a 2004 American documentary film about the children of prostitutes in Sonagachi, Kolkata's red light district. The widely acclaimed film, written and directed by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, won a string of accolades including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2004.[2]
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Briski, a documentary photographer, went to Calcutta to photograph prostitutes. While there, she befriended their children and offered to teach the children photography to reciprocate being allowed to photograph their mothers. The children were given cameras so they could learn photography and possibly improve their lives. Much of their work was used in the film, and the filmmakers recorded the classes as well as daily life in the red light district. The children's work was exhibited, and one boy was even sent to a photography conference in Amsterdam. Briski also recorded her efforts to place the children in boarding schools.
There is debate about the extent to which the documentary has improved the lives of the children featured in it.
The film-makers claim that the lives of children appearing in Born into Brothels have been transformed by money earned through the sale of photos and a book on them. Ross Kauffman, co-director of the documentary, says that the amount earned is $100,000 (about Rs.4.5 million), which will pay for their tuition and for a school in India for children of prostitutes. Briski has started a non-profit organization to continue this kind of work in other countries, named Kids with Cameras.[3] A film is being made on the life story of a high-profile trio of call girl sisters, Shaveta, Khushboo and Himani, born in one of the brothels of Haryana.
However, Partha Banerjee, who worked on the film as an interpreter, has disputed the claim that the children's lives have been improved. In a February 2005 letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he says that many of them ended up in worse circumstances than they had been in before their involvement in photography classes.[4] Critics argued that the lives and family circumstances of these children were too complex to be revolutionized by educating one family member in photography or by sending them to boarding school.[5] The documentary itself acknowledges that many of those saved from the red light district and put into boarding school ended up leaving the school and returning to their families before long.
In November 2006, Kids with Cameras provided an update on many of the children's conditions, asserting that they had entered high schools or universities in India and the United States or found employment outside of prostitution. Kids with Cameras continues to work toward improving the lives of children from the Calcutta red light district with the plan to build a Hope House.[6]
A secretary of the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, a prostitutes' organization active in Sonagachi, has criticized Briski for using hidden camera work to present the children's parents as uncaring, for ignoring the prostitutes' substantial efforts to unite, and for harming the global movement for sex worker rights and dignity. In addition, the film has been criticized in India for perceived racist stereotyping, and has also been viewed as exploiting the children for the purposes of Indophobic propaganda in the West.[7] A review in Frontline, India's national magazine, summarized this criticism, remarking:
| “ | IF Born Into Brothels were remade as an adventure-thriller in the tradition of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, its posters might read: "New York film-maker Zana Briski sallies forth among the natives to save souls."[7] | ” |
Some critics joined the Sonagachi prostitute-advocacy groups in condemning the film for exploitation of the plight of the prostitutes for profit.[7] Other criticisms were raised about "ethical and stylistic" problems, by Partha Banerjee, interpreter between the filmmakers and the children.[5]
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