A Study of Documentary Photography in Born into Brothels
篇名: A Study of Documentary Photography in Born into Brothels
作者: 李盈盈。台北市立景美女中。高三善班
指導老師： 劉慧平老師
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A Study of Documentary Photography in Born into Brothels Name: Zola Ying-Ying Lee Advisor: Christine Hui-Ping Liu
1.1 Documentary
Documentary film is defined as “a factual film” with dramatic elements. Born into Brothels is a well-organized documentary film with factual scene and story. Though it is about the true story that takes place in the red light district in Calcutta, India, it is colorful with a plot.
A documentary also stands out from the other types of non-fiction films for providing an opinion, and a specific message, along with the facts it presents. There are several categories which documentaries can fall into, such as historian and political. (Rabinowitz 37) In Born into Brothels, the main theme of the film is to convey the thought of dealing with the poverty and emphasizing the human rights of children. The children from the red light district live in deep desperation. They do not get enough food and water, and they work at an early age. The director of the movie, Zana Briski, wants to help them with cameras, so she makes the world-famous film Born into Brothels.
Documentary presents life as it is. It uncovers a lot of facts that happen in people’s life. In Born into Brothels, the problem of poverty and lack of human rights in the red light district are shown without artificial changes. It demonstrates the art of documentary photography used in the film, which will be further discussed later in the thesis.
The history of documentary films can be traced back to the early 1900s. The first “moving pictures” were documentary-like. They simply take down the scene of the running train or the rolling stone. In 1900-1920, the “scenic” films were the most popular ones. At that time, the theme of documentary was just people’s daily life. Until the 1920s, with Robert J. Flaherty's Nanook of the North in 1922, documentary film embraced romanticism. Flaherty staged how the life style objects had changed through 100 years. Until 1950-1970s, documentaries were provided as political weapons against neocolonialism and capitalism in general, especially in Latin America. Modern documentaries are very different from the old ones. They have become increasingly successful. Films such as Super Size Me, Man on Wire, and of course, Born into Brothels, all hit the box office amazingly.
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Documentaries are important in our lives. It takes down the true scenes and things. Via documentaries, we can present our own thoughts and requests clearly and simply.
1.2 Summary of Born into Brothels
Directed by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, Born into Brothels is a documentary about the life in the red light district of India. The director Zana Briski is a documentary photographer. She went to India, trying to take down the red light district. She saw the kids who grew up there. She discovered the problems of the uneducated and the bleak future of them. She tried to change them, with cameras.
She came back to India with ten cameras and a few funds. She taught them how to take photos. The kids took a lot of photos of the real scene in the red light district, which was very shocking to people around the world. Zana exhibited the photos and helped them sell those photos in the USA and used the money they earned to let them have the chance to go to school.
Although Zana tried hard to make them educated, she still did not succeed. The problems of the kids’ families, the tradition in India and the red light district were the factors that stopped the kids from being educated.
Unlike those who grew up in developed countries, they did not have any right of education or even the right of having a good living. These were big problems which still remained unsolved in the red light district.
Zana Briski showed us that in the red light district, the victims were not the women or the women’s husbands, but their innocent children. It reminded people of the serious problem in India, and, around the world.
1.3 Criticism on Born into Brothels
In the section, I am going to talk about the criticism about the documentary, Born into Brothels, from the media. The reason I separate the criticism from the summary is that I think the view point toward this movie varies from person to person. Some people think the film might affect the poverty around the world, while others think of it as
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impossible. These are two examples.
The critic Desson Thomson, from Washington Post, mentions that the educational right of the children was in their parents’ hands. “Offering opportunity isn’t enough,” he said, “Briski faces a tyranny of hopelessness.” The movie talks about how the girls were forced into prostitution. They were sold by their parents, who tried to earn money out of nothing. Because “many of these adults simply see their children's absence as the loss of a useful pair of hands or even household income,” Briski had tried hard to make the children educated (Thomson). She fought for continual support and asked the boarding school one after another. After all of these depressing processes, she successfully sent all the children to school. But at last, most of the girls were sent back home. They gave up the priceless opportunity of getting educated by their parent’s willingness, or not. Those kids who ran back home were not the sinner. The whole society was.
Roger Ebert from Chicago Sun-Times once said that just like saving a dog from the street, you will never save them all. He thought that even though Zana Briski tried hard to give the kids a better life, there were hundreds, thousands or even millions of them were still suffering the poverty. He was much more pessimistic than Thomson. He thought that the problem will never be solved, and Briski’s hard work would not affect much (Ebert).
Winning the Academy Award, the film is approved by the mass. People think it is real, touching and inspiring. It does not matter how the film will change the lives of the poor anymore. The main point is that the film makes people know about the truth of red light district, and some of them are even trying to take action.
2.1 Documentary Photography and the Role It Plays in the Movie
In photography, the first one who used the word “documentary” is the French photographer Eugene Atget. His photos are of streets, historical buildings and the normal people. Documentary is the evidence. It can show the world how the things truly are without any artificial making up. (Rothstein 7)
The most special thing about documentary photography is that it has the ability to influence people and the events. William Henry Jackson’s works are the first one to offer as a tribute. The most valuable attribution of Jackson is that he builds up a
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national park by his photographs. (Rothstein 15)
Documentary photography tells stories frankly and purely, rather than artificially. It takes down the evidence of the truth with cameras and makes people concern about the issues. Eugene Atget is the expert in this goal. He uses his camera to unmask the guilt and ugliness inside the society. His works touch the mass and makes them take action. (Rothstein 26)
In the film, Zana Briski holds up an exhibition of the kids’ photographs in USA and India. She lets the whole world see the red light district in Calcutta, India and calls people’s attention. Before that, few people knew the problem of red light district. Without knowing, nobody will lend a helping hand. After the exhibitions, people see the real things that happen in the dark corner.
Briski holds up a non-profit foundation, “Kids with Cameras”, as well. It was founded in 2002 by Zana Briski out of her work teaching photography to children in Calcutta’s red-light district. They use photography to capture the imagination of children, to empower them, building confidence, self-esteem and hope. Through exhibitions, books, websites and films, they share the kids’ vision and voices with the world. They try to strengthen the children’s education and provide financial support through sales of their prints or by developing their own homes with a focus on leadership and the arts.
These show the power of the film and the photography. The photographs taken by the children from the red light district let the world know about them and try to help them. The photographs make people take action to create a better world.
The theme of documentary photography is unlimited, but not every photo is documentary. Documentary photographs should convey some demands and requisition, so it can be parted from the scene of streets or people. Lewis Wickens Hine, the humanistic documentary photographer, takes the pictures of child labors in cotton mills, pits and factories. His photographs directly promote the law of child labors. He says that he must show the things that should be corrected. He wants to do the things that people will admire. His photographs make big affection in the world until now. (Rothstein 32)
In this film, Born into Brothels, though the kids take photos incidentally, each photo has stories behind it. Most of their photos show the scene of the brothels in Calcutta.
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The poverty of the streets can be seen in almost every picture. The kids tell the world how it goes in the red light district.
Documentary photographers have one specialty in common, that is, they are all curious but objective. (Rothstein 63) They try their best to find the nature between world and humanity, and they let the truth talk. The author of On Photography, Susan Sontag, mentions that taking others’ photos is like attacking them. The photographers watch them in the way which they never have. The photographers have the knowledge they never have. But the photographs show the problem in this world. Documentary photography looks at this world in an objective and clear way. They make the world think about how to make changes of it. (Rothstein 71)
The power of documentary photography comes from the acceptant of the mass that it is the evidence of witness. Just like photojournalism, documentary photography only shows the truth. Artists may find it too simple and pure, but this is the thing people should know. Documentary photographers must be honest to the world and to themselves. The moral and the value of true art in documentary photography are priceless. (Rothstein 87)
In Born into Brothels, via the camera, we can see clearly that the kids simply take pictures of the streets and people, but not make change on any of them. They just take down the real things.
Documentary photography is not only a technique of photography but also the easiest way to communicate. Documentary photography is in our daily life, and it changes our world so much that we don’t even notice it. The art of documentary photography is everywhere in every moment.
3.1 Transformation through Personal Expression
In Born into Brothels, the process of creating art serves very important functions in the lives of the children of the sex workers in Calcutta. Zana Briski goes to the red light district and teaches them the art of photography. She provides them with cameras, letting they show their true personal feeling via photography. The kids transform the art of photography into their own way of expressing their feelings and personalities.
One kid in the movie, Avijit, said, “I like to draw pictures because I want to express
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what’s on my mind…I want to put my thought into colors.” He is talented in drawing and coloring, and he wins a lot of medals in drawing. After he meets Zana Briski, he learns how to take photos. He is good at photography as well. He knows how to make the photo bleaker with a thin cloth put in front of the camera without being taught. His talents makes Zana Briski seriously think about how to make him a great photographer.
Because of his talent, Avijit is invited to a photographer camp in Amsterdam to learn more about photography. Avijit’s trip to Amsterdam is transformative process to him as well. He meets so many children with talent of photography from all around the world and sees lot of masterpieces. He learns more about the skills of taking photos.
The cultural shock changes Avijit a lot as well. I think this may be related to the film Culture he makes afterward. The film is about the differences between the east and the west. He interviews two people: one is a woman from India, and the other is a man from America. They talk about their view points on marriage and so on. In my opinion, the reason Avijit makes this video is that he wants to record the shock that occurs to him while he goes to Amsterdam, the west, for the first time. In the foreign country, he sees something different from the country he comes from. With his curious eyes, he sees so many things that he hasn’t even heard of. To deal with his own confusion, he makes the film Culture, which is approved by people who see it.
Photography changes Avijit a lot. It’s a way for him to find himself. With a wider point of view, he sees himself more than he can imagine.
3.2 The Issue of Human Rights in the Movie
The film, Born into Brothels, the human rights issue serves as the main theme. Some say that Zana Briski and those kids are human rights educators. Briski tries to change the lives of the kids with her own power, and the kids showed the world the lack of human rights with their own examples. They call the world’s attention on human rights successfully.
The documentary tells a story about the poor living of the children of the sex workers. They have to work at an early age to support their families’ finances. The luckier ones have to clean others’ houses. The unfortunate ones grow up to be like their mothers, working as sex workers. They don’t get enough food, sleep and clothes, not even
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mention about going to school. Getting educated is like a big dream for them.
Nowadays, people mayt think it common for a kid to get educated. But it is not true. Lots of children from poor families or countries still do not have the opportunity to go to school. In India, especially the kids from red light districts, are not accepted by schools. The director of the film, Zana Briski, tries to help them go to school. She asked a lot of schools to do something for the kids, but the only answer she got was impossible. The teachers in the school think that the sex workers’ children may make a lot of trouble and even destroy the normal life they previously have.
But the truth is, if those kids do not go to school and get educated, they would end up living in the brothels, earn money the way their mothers do. And it will be a vicious circle that through generation to generation. They must help themselves, and the only way is education. Briski and the kids know about it. They try hard to find a way to help themselves.
At last, Zana Briski found a school for them, but most of the kids went back to the brothels. Some of them couldn’t bear the change of their lives; some went back unwillingly. The factors behind it were unknown, but it was sure that the fault wasn’t the kids’. The whole society made them decide to go back to their bleak future.
There are lots of ways for us to lend a helping hand. We can donate money to foundations such as The Hope House, which is held up by Zana Briski to help the poor children get educated. Furthermore, we can go to the poor countries and try to help them.
But, if we do not have money or free time, the easiest thing we can do is let more people know more about the situation that the poor are facing through talking to a friend or an article that will be posted on the newspaper.
Taking action to save the poverty is not tough at all. All we should do is show our kindness and passion toward these people, as Briski did in Born into Brothels.
4 Conclusion
In the documentary Born into Brothels, it represents the true scene and story in the red light district of Calcutta, India. The main theme of the documentary film is the
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poverty and lack of human rights in the red light districts. The director Zana Briski wants to tell the world how the kids of the sex workers’ lives are, and she tries to call the attention of the world to concern about the serious issue.
The documentary photography is a big part in this film. The kids are taught how to take photos by Briski. They take the cameras into the brothels and take down the real and close shots of the streets. Their photos are the true stories that happen in the red light district, which is their home. They show the evidence of their life via documentary photography.
Photography also changes the way of personal expression of the children. They are illiterate, so they can not express themselves with words. But they can use cameras to convey their thoughts and “write down” the daily life of them.
One of the main themes of the film Born into Brothels is human rights issue. Some say that Zana Briski and the children are all human rights educators. In the film, they show the world how the poverty goes in the red light district in the scenes. The film spreads the idea of helping the poor throughout the world.
I hope that the film Born into Brothels can make more people think of the problem of poverty and the children’s rights. There are dark corners which have not been found yet in the world. We should try our best to help them out of the alley, take their hands to help them stand up and guide them to the light.
Works Cited Books 1. Rabinowitz, Paula. ( 1994). They Must be Represented: The Politics of Documentary: W W Norton & Co Inc 2. Rothstein, Arthur. (1993). Documentary Photography (李文吉譯): 遠流
Internet 1. Ebert, Robert, “Born into Brothels”, Chicago Sun Times February 11, 2005
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2005
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