Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids

I've written stuff I never thought of by myself that I would write about other’s life or society or people of the world. Coz I always believe in “Don’t compare your life with others. You have no idea what their journey is all about”.

Yes it is much realistic, American documentary film about the children of prostitutes in Sonagachi, Calcutta’s red light district! Welled up my eyes.

Plot of film goes like this:

Zana Briski, a documentary photographer, went to Calcutta to photograph prostitutes. While there, she befriended their children and offered to teach the children photography to reciprocate being allowed to photograph their Mothers, Nature, Environment, Society, People so on and so forth. The children were given cameras in capturing the so called beautiful world around them. So they could learn photography and possibly improve their lives & Zana was able to give the children a different way to look at life. Much of their work was used in the film, and the filmmakers recorded the classes as well as daily life in the red light district. The children's work was exhibited, and one boy was even sent to a photography conference in Amsterdam.

The excellent element of this documentary which moved me was the life of those prostitutes and the kids, the way they see life in hostile environment and the most was Zana Briski an English artist (photographer, filmmaker) and activist.

Briski also recorded her efforts to place the children in boarding schools apart from name fame and her documentary which is certainly not a part of her job. Being a foreigner she has done great job for our own country kids. She took so much of pain to obtain Citizenship, Ration card, Photo ID, medical certificate to prove they are HIV negative etc etc to obtain an admission for those kids into Boarding school that’s truly incredible. I doubt does our system really care about all these formalities for a kid born to a non-prostitute. Being Indians we (most of us) don’t come forward to take up the responsibility of our neighbors, our people, our friends, our relatives sometimes our own people. Zana really deserves an appreciation from the whole world for her selfless service.

Few things are at a so standstill that they would never change in a country like India even decades down the line. The documentary itself acknowledges that many of those saved from the red light district and put into boarding school ended up leaving the school and returning to their families before long. I agree her efforts all went in vain coz it’s a very hard route to take, not the easy way out. However it’s certainly an essential lesson for us & our system.

It was nominated for so many awards and won most of them the sole reason being we enjoy or get entertained for few hours with distressing stories like,

The 'invisible' half-Almost one in every two children under three years of age is hungry. This is the invisible half of our population, people who disappear from our consciousness until they die in large numbers.

No place for single women- A politician speaking of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme. “They don't want widows & turn you away if you are single, without a male partner” when a woman is willing to work as a coolie after her husband commits suicide... The NREGP programme itself was to benefit lakhs of poor families in the State.

Lives which showcase poverty, forced labor, migration, illiteracy & lead few souls to a wrong place coz our (good) thoughts will never reflect our actions to offer a helping hand for those helpless, hopeless and homeless...

Of-course we believe in Protecting Hinduism by Attacking Unarmed Women

We keep revising policies of Govt, Defense, Educational system, NGO’s, Corporate etc etc every freaking thing for the betterment of living. We compete against science and technology in order to gain an identity in the world map, so what are we up to…? What are we fighting for…? What are we trying to achieve…? We so care about our own kids like their education, their career, their success and probably before they are born but why do those kids have to undergo such a tough life..? Is it coz they are not our kids..? Of-course this may be a responsible behavior of an individual but when we look at things in a broader perspective, things do really matters…

Awards won by Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids:

• 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature – Zana Briski, Kauffman
• 2004 Bermuda International Film Festival - Audience Choice Award - Briski, Kauffman
• Documentary Prize - Briski, Kauffman
• 2004 Cleveland International Film Festival - Best Film - Briski, Kauffman
• 2004 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Audience Award - Briski, Kauffman (tied
withWorld Wars)
• 2004 National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary
• 2004 Seattle International Film Festival Golden Space Needle Award - Briski, Kauffman
• 2004 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award - Documentary – Kauffman

The sale of photographs clicked by the kids has risen over $100,000. The documentary has grossed $700,000 in 12 weeks. The money from the film was contributed towards a school for the children of sex workers in Calcutta.

A thought provoking documentary - Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2965045529/

A deep thought to our society....

What is it going to take... ? To eat life whole...!

It occurred to me this week that this is a mighty powerful question.

• What’s it going to take? We usually use that phrase in dire circumstances.
• What’s it going to take for you to wake up?
• What’s it going to take for me to quit?
• What’s it going to take for them to realize?

But life is an urgent circumstance, really, when you think about it. Birth is miraculous. Survival is miraculous. Death is inevitable. Suffering is well….optional. Life is urgent.

I wonder what my days would be like if I approached my happiness with more urgency and insistence (like I do deadlines and should-do’s). I have GOT to meet my dancing quota! Come hell or high water, I WILL get a facial and lay in the sun!

Most important deadlines: to meander, to laugh until I snort by noon every day, to see the first robin bird of spring before the week is over.

So, in the spirit of urgent vitality, and not knowing when death may strike, and being acutely bored of my same old pattern of complaints, I’m asking myself, lovingly but firmly: LaPorte, what’s it going to take for you to be incredibly joyful?

• What’s it going to take for you to make an evolutionary leap as an artist, lover, mother, friend, human?
• What’s it going to take to get you to walk to the lake that’s four minutes from your house?
• What’s it going to take to get you on the dance floor? You want to eat life whole? To know God? To radiate pure love?
• What’s it going to take?

One of the best article I have read in recent times.
Article was published in "Tickled by Life-are you" By Danielle LaPorte.