Born Into Brothels

Graded Mini-Assignment: Born into Brothels

1) Personally I think Born into Brothels is a suitable name for the documentary. Through the documentary we see what the children that are born into the brothels are forced to endure. Daily they must see their grandmothers, mothers, and sisters being mistreated by men and pimps. Not only are the women mistreated but so are the children. They are shunned upon in school, which makes it hard to attain education. Slowly we begin to understand that being born into brothels is a way of life and not a status for the children. They children become one anothers life support relying on their friends for support rather then their own families just because they were born in the red light district.

2) Through the documentary 'Born into Brothels' we are exposed to a raw society in India. We see the poverty that many Indians must endure in this region of India. The women are forced into prostitution and the children forced into empty lives that provide no hope for the future. The women abuse one another and their children both mentally and physically. Surprisingly though we think that people living in such conditions would want their children to succeed and leave the harsh living situation but many women force their children to stay and not advance, forcing them not to go to school and stay home and work. Throughout the documentary in the background we can see the many women standing in the street waiting for clients. This is such a harsh reality because you don't realize how prevalent it is and how many women are actually selling themselves.

3) The documentary begins with Zana describing why she chose to do this documentary starting it off with a sense of reason or purpose. She slowly tells the audience that it took a while for the women to warm up to her. Zana soon began to notice that the children were warming up to her much more quickly and that they were amazed by all the camera equipment. It was at this point in the documentary she gave the children point and shoot cameras in which they were to take pictures of their surroundings. For me this is when the documentary truly began when we begin to see the daily lives of the children and the pictures they were taking. As the children are telling us their stories we see Zana trying to get them into different schools to help educate them. By the end of the documentary after all eight stories were told we find out who later on went to school and who did not. The documentary in my personal opinion was put together very nicely. I feel that the way they structured the struggle to get the children in school entwined with the biographies of the children was in a way showing us that sometimes even adults can not help these children.

4) Throughout the documentary we learn a lot about the culture and people that live in Calcutta in a variety of ways. One way the culture of the people can be seen is in the backdrop of the documentary. Throughout the documentary you can see interactions in the back of the main subjects. You see how the people normally dress and carry themselves in the street. We also get direct information from people such as when Zana goes to one of the agencies to get the children into schools and they explain to her that people from that part of society are deemed to be very low class even the children and that education is rarely available for them.

5) Though Zana is the main photographer of the documentary the children very quickly become the center of attention. Zana, as a photojournalist tried to expose Calcutta's red light district for what it is. Giving the children camera's allowed intimate details of the childrens lives behind close doors be exposed, many in which Zana would have not experienced. We are intoduced to eight extordinary children that take the cameras Zana has given them and use them as outlets. They begin to poor the emotions into the photographs each having their own specific manner and style. My favorite child in the documentary was Kochi. I think I fell in love with her innocence. Seeing all the things she has to go through you just want to hold her and protect her. Although she seems so young an vulnerable you can see the spark of hope that she has. It kind of twinkles in her eyes when she says she wants to go to school and do something with herself.

6) The children travel on different excursions throughout the documentary such as to the beach, the zoo and the bookstore. Even though these are different places they all provide the same thing for the children, a place away from home. These places may nto be far from where they live but they are places in which the children would never go. They neither have the money nor the supervision to take them there. It was so amazing to watch the children play and be amazed by the little things we take for granted such as seeing people in the street and waving to them. When taken away from their homes and village, the children act much liek many other innocent children; singing, dancing, and laughing at everything under the sun. I feel like these moments are what made the documentary so real, to see children who have no to choice to suffer everyday make the best out of little things such as playing on a sandy beach for granted.

7) The film makers hold our interest by having a lot of story lines at once. We understand that the point of the documentary was to show some of the things that women have to go