Born Into Brothels

To be shown: 6 November 2006

India/USA 2004
85 minutes
Director: Agnes Jaoui (Documentary)
Starring: Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman.
Screened in association with the Jeevan Jyothi Children’s Trust.

Synopsis

A photojournalist who went to Calcutta in the late ‘90s to document Sonagachi, its red-light district, Zana Briski eventually befriended many of the local prostitutes’ children. She thought art might prove a form of escape so she gave them cameras and taught them how to shoot and edit pictures of the world they knew.

The film comes from their own photographs, and from Briski’s struggle to help them break free from a cycle of exploitation. All cast members play themselves and the end results make for compelling cinema.

To be fair to Briski, her interest in these children was far from merely passing. Indeed, the award-winning, Cambridge-educated, photographer was so moved by their plight that she lived in the district for the best part of two years. It was during this time that she hit upon the idea of introducing the children - tubby Advijit, mischievous Shanti, wide-eyed Manik, to name but a few - to her vocation. Wary to begin with, the kids soon took to their new toys and astonishingly soon produced high-quality work bound for the galleries of London and New York.

Of the many remarkable things about Born into Brothels is the basic normality of the children. Despite being raised in what looks like Hell’s antechamber, these boys and girls play, fight and laugh like kids the world over. The only sad thing is that, in between refusing to eat their vegetables and arguing about whose turn it is to use the camera, the children sometimes display a wise-beyond-their-years quality which hints at a wisdom that can only be learnt through surviving tough times. (Richard Luck, Channel4.com)

Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian wrote of this movie ‘It has real insights, not so much into material poverty, but status. Simply with a camera in their hands, these children had a taste of what it is like to control and understand one’s surroundings, to feel some of the prestige and respect that prosperous westerners take for granted.’

The Jeevan Jyothi Children's Trust (J.J.C.T.) is a very small charity based in Jersey whose aim is to provide continuing help, guidance and financial support for a Children's home based in Bapatla in South East India. The staff at the Jeevan Jyothi Children's Home look after children whose parents are either dead or too poor to feed them.