COM320 - "Born Into Brothels"

1. I think that by juxtaposing scenes of the red light district with the eyes of children, the filmmakers meant to illustrate the unsightly things children growing up there experience on a day-to-day basis. In seeing it, my reaction was one of both shock and sympathy. While the images they chose of Calcutta’s seedy side didn’t go into the more graphic side of things, it was the idea of kids being forced to mature so quickly because of their environment that filled me with such a sense of distress. Not to mention the fact that many of them will never leave the red light district because of their circumstances. If the director wanted to give the audience a feeling of hopelessness, then she certainly succeeded!

2. Photography, I feel, was an excellent medium to bridge the lives of Zana and the children. In itself, photography is something anyone can do to some degree. All it requires is pointing a camera in a direction and pushing a button, and voila! You have your view of the world immortalized on film. You could really tell how much the children enjoyed doing it. It took their shady environment and turned it into a place where art could be created. I think the photography let them see their world in a new light. As for Zana Auntie, she seemed to get a lot out of the childrens’ fascination with their new medium of expression.

3. Initially, Zana Auntie thought teaching the children photography would allow them to get an intimate view into a world not many people have the opportunity to see. As she mentioned early in the documentary, whenever she, an American photographer, pulled out a camera, people hid, shying away for fear of being identified. With the children, however, people were less reluctant to be photographed. Over time, what started as a sort of photographic sociological study turned into a way for the kids to not only express themselves but to have an opportunity to get out of the red light district. Avijit, for example, was able to travel to Amsterdam and be among equally artistic children, something that he could follow up on and be successful with.

4. On the one hand, the idea of a foreigner trying to assist disadvantaged children or give them a different life seems a bit condescending and ethnocentric. It seems to project a mindset of “my lifestyle is better than what you have, so I’m going to push my ideals on you without taking cultural relativism into consideration.” On the other hand (and the one I tend to agree with), it’s an incredibly noble gesture, full of empathy and benevolence. All Zana was trying to do is give the kids the advantages they would most likely not be able to achieve on their own growing up in the red light district, which isn’t so much to ask. A good amount of the parents in the film wanted to give their children a better life anyway, they just had no means of doing so. So, in this case, I see no problem with someone helping them out, “foreigner” or otherwise.

5. Getting the children out-and-about to places like the beach and the zoo was incredibly important, if only to remind them that there’s life outside the red light district. Additionally, it gave them the opportunity to use their photography skills honed in Calcutta in other, more positive ways. Also, obviously, the kids need some time to be kids now and again. By living in the red light district, they’re forced to grow up awfully quickly, often working and doing chores for their parents a good amount of the day. Without time to play, imagine, and have fun, they miss out on the opportunity to have a proper childhood. As for the zoo, the children made note of how the animals were stuck in cages, a parallel to their own situations in the red light district. In the same way the animals were locked up, they felt that there was no way to ever escape their current conditions.

6. When Kochi says “If I could go somewhere else and get an education, I wonder what I could become,” it shows that she and the other children are always looking outward. If anything, it illustrates the hope she has to break out of the vicious cycle, to not get a job in the sex industry, to make something of herself despite her origins. However, by phrasing it with words like “wonder” and “could,” it shows a certain amount of pessimism towards whether it could become a reality or not. Sadly, it seems that many of the children have resigned to their fates and have no expectation of ever leaving the brothels, be it because of their parents, financial circumstances, or just apathy. It’s simply heartbreaking!