Summary - Born into Brothels
The 2004 documentary Born Into Brothels follows documentarian Zana Briski's time spent among the prostitutes of Calcutta. In this time, not only does she follow the trials and tribulations of prostitutes and women in Indian culture, but she also reveals new insights about the children of these prostitutes and how small their prospects for betterment are. This documentary is a powerful, day-in-the-life snapshot of people whose prospects for life are actively hindered by their socioeconomic positions, and how their children are affected by these conditions that they simply cannot control.
The majority of the film takes place in Calcutta's red light district, which is a devastating and impoverished place. Most of the women there work as prostitutes and sex workers, using their own homes as places of work. Photography is something that is frowned upon greatly in the red light district, due to people's reticence toward being "found out." Many women are beaten and treated badly by their clients, and the district stands as a far cry from the rapidly progressing world of the rest of India. Men often come in and beat the women and children, drunk and disenfranchised; the children work and shop for their mothers while they are working.
The children are often the hardest hit by this desolate situation; their lives are unsafe, and they have little prospects for the future. Many of them believe that they will go into prostitution as well. In order to combat this, Briski teaches them photography, so that they might take some control over their lives and provide her with a close-up view of the brothel life. The shots they take of the red light district are breathtaking, and demonstrate a sensitivity and artistry that these children would not normally get a chance to discover or express.
Given the lack of options Calcutta children of prostitutes are given, Briski attempts to give them an outlet for their creativity and teach them photography. This is done in order to get more candid shots of the prostitutes, while also giving them a chance to express themselves. Eventually, the work done by the students was exhibited in art galleries, and one particularly talented Calcutta boy, Avijit, was sent to Amsterdam to attend a photography conference. During these exhibitions, the children were clearly excited and engaged, grateful for the attention while honestly telling their stories. The press coverage of the exhibitions also turns the children into minor celebrities, demonstrating a worldwide level of attention being paid to these humble prostitutes' children from Calcutta. At the same time, Briski attempted to get the children into boarding schools so as to let them escape the environment of the red light district.
While many of the childrens' lives are bettered by Briski's intervention, it does not end well for some. Some of the childrens' parents die, their murders done by pimps and not investigated. Even though some attend the boarding schools, there are a few who leave and enter a life of prostitution, just as they imagined they would. While Briski's work left a great impression on the children she encountered, there is a lot of work left to do, both in the country and for these individuals.
Analysis - Born into Brothels
Born into Brothels is a fascinating look at the darker side of Indian culture, and the pervasive underbelly that leaves many more people still in poverty, despite the progression and advancement of the rest of India. It presents prostitution as a deeply entrenched, systemic problem that has little to no chance of improving without deep intervention. However, the most important and distinct subject of the documentary is the way that children are affected by this adverse environment. In this documentary, there are many aspects of social anthropology theory and child development theory that can be found which can shed light on the particular situations these children and their mothers find themselves in.
The inevitable appeal of a documentary that takes place in a foreign country like India, and this specific subculture of Calcutta, is to show the Other. The Other, being those of a different culture or perspective from us, are definitely seen in the documentary, being prostitutes living in destitution in a lower-class segment of a foreign country with a distinctly alien culture to us. In order to explore the Other, and bring a sample of this culture to us, Zana Briski acts as a cultural anthropologist in this documentary. Because Anthropology is "oriented toward social change," Briski's main concept for improvement and change is a betterment of the social conditions for both these prostitutes and their children in the red light district of Calcutta (Handwerker). Despite the idea of bringing social betterment to the red light district, there is no semblance of cultural arrogance or ethnocentrism to the documentary; she does not seek to bring the Other into the fold of Americanism. Instead, she merely wishes to make sure the prostitutes and their children are safe, and that they have the ability to express themselves and live in peace. Since these are her only goals for the children, and ostensibly ones that the rest of India successfully carries out, Briski's documentary is fairly even handed.
Applying Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, it is interesting to see what level the subjects of the documentary are in, and how their unique circumstances are absorbed and dealt with. For the most part, the children are between seven and eleven years of age. To that end, they are in the fourth stage of development - Competence: Industry vs. Inferiority. Here, the children are fully aware of who they are as people, and are learning responsibility. At the same time, they are starting to learn what is right and what is wrong, all while they take care of themselves and determine their place in the world. This is said to be the most critical stage for self-confidence, and this shows in the children's attitudes.
Many of the children in the documentary are shown to be incredibly industrious, and tough in the face of these insurmountable circumstances. Due to their mothers' jobs, they have to go out and work for themselves and become industrious, teaching them an incredible work ethic. By earning a trade and exposing themselves to tremendous adversity, they teach themselves how to deal with these circumstances. When Briski exposes them to the joy of taking pictures, their joy grows even further, as they are allowed a voice and a sense of individuality that cannot be taken from them. This proves to be a wonderful means of increasing their happiness and bringing fleeting joy to their lives, improving their social development for the better and decreasing their sense of inferiority.
References
Briski, Z., & Kauffman, R. (2004). Born into brothels.
Erikson, E. (1950). Childhood and society. W.W. Norton & Company.
Piaget, J. (1971). Biology and knowledge Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
