Why Is Zana Broski Born Into Brothels

Born into brothels: The reality of children being born into them The documentary, Born into brothels, takes place in Abinash Kaviraj lane, Calcutta, India. Zana Briski, the professional photographer and director in charge of this documentary, shows many different perspectives of the children’s world in the brothels. It takes courage to move out of your own country for several years to go and explore someone else’s ‘’world.’’ She shows many faces of the children’s world and how she taught them photography, and showed them the world outside the brothels. Briski records examples and real life events, we can see the different ways people live and how they treat their children. This documentary can be interpreted in different ways depending
who is watching it. We can see their world with our own eyes, feel and suffer like they do. This project started when Briski decided to live in and out of the brothels for a long period of time. As soon as she entered the brothels she met the children who were desperate asking for help. She started photographing women in the red light district, but about two years later she decided to turn her focus on the children. The director tells us that it is almost impossible to photograph in the red light district because everyone is terrified of the camera or afraid to be found. Everything in the brothels is illegal. It is a whole new society within itself. Later she felt a connection with a special group of seven children. All the examples, evidence, and credibility shows that ethos, pathos, and logos are well demonstrated in Born into brothels by showing real life events of three special children living in them. Born into brothels has a huge and motivating impact on people because it shows the real world of families and their living conditions in the brothels.
Briski targets an audience difficult to get interested in these type of problems such as prostitution or drug addiction. The high upper medium class, or even the middle class are the ones that can help and make a difference in helping these children or families trying to get out of the brothels. They are the ones that can really make a difference in the red light district because they have connections, money, and better surroundings. The high upper class and the medium class are people that do not care or ignore these problems since they do not have anything to do with them or their families. The message of these children asking for help can be seen all throughout the documentary. It is very emotional and heartbreaking to see these children that want to prosper by themselves, with no help from their families. Briski tried to help them but there is not much she can do either. She can at least show us the story of their lives and hope that someone would help them. These children need serious help to get out of the brothels and become someone better for their future. As soon as Briski entered the brothels she met the children. Brothels filled with children, they were everywhere. They were curious and did not understand what she was doing there, she was there to help them succeed and hopefully abandon the brothels. She
started teaching photography to seven children that live in the brothels. Their names were Kochi, Puja, Suchitra, Shanti, Manik, Gour, Avijit, and Tapasi. The children that caught most my attention were Kochi, Puja, and Avijit. The first one is Kochi.
She is little and cute. She is in the photography class; she is very quiet and shy with the camera. Kochi does the dishes, brings tea, and does errands for her upstairs neighbor (Briski 7:39). Her story is heartbreaking because no child should be doing this type of work, she should be playing with friends and having fun every day. She mops twice a day and she gets paid for doing this. In the evenings if her neighbor wants she does shopping and works until eleven at night. Kochi keeps thinking what she could become is she gets an education and leaves the brothels. She likes the photography class and taking pictures, but she does not like editing them. She feels shy taking pictures in public because people tease her and say mean things. She lives with her grandmother because her mother cannot take care of her. Kochi tells us that her father tried to sell her, and if her sister did not come to get her, she would have been sold. Who knows, if she would have been sold maybe she would have never seen her family ever again. Kochi is worried that she would probably become a prostitute and does not want to. Briski thinks that she is going to be forced into prostitution because she is very shy and never says no. At 4 in the morning Kochi starts cleaning houses with her grandmother, but Kochi works so hard that she has no time to rest or play with her friends. Her mother lost six sons and her husband died too. Kochi is almost by herself since no
one cares about her life or her future. Her mother does not behave normally, she has emotional problems. Fortunately, Kochi gets accepted to a boarding school outside the brothels and she takes the opportunity.
Avijit is the last special child. He tells us that when he has a camera in his hands, he can take a picture of someone who has gone away, died, or been lost (Briski 32:47). By taking these pictures he will have something that he will be able to see for the rest of his life. He likes to draw pictures because he wants to express what is on his mind (Briski 33:04). Avijit wants to put his thoughts into colors. He won many awards for his pictures and his grandmother is very happy for that. The pictures Avijit takes have many different angles, lots of detail, and very good complexion. In his room, liquor is sold almost first thing in the morning. Alcohol should never be near children, that is setting a bad example for them in the future by seeing men drink all through the day. The men drink and go to the girls, give them money, and spend some time with them. Some men drink and do not pat, so Avijit has to go after them and be mean so that he can get the money. Children need to be doing what they like instead of chasing people because they have not paid for something. His dad is Sunil Halder, he is almost forty. When Avijit was two years old his father married Avijit’s mother, and at that point, another man got his father addicted to smoking ash (Briski 34:56). As you see his father does not take care of Avijit, so he is growing up without a paternal figure. In the past his father was a good man; he used to be very fat, and could easily beat up two men at one time. He was and still is well known in the brothels, although nobody pays attention to him. Avijit narrates that he still tries to love his father, and every kid should love their father, it does not matter how he looks like or what he does, he will always be his father. His mother lives in the village, but nobody cares about her. Later in the documentary Avijit mother gets killed by her pimp and Avijit is very upset. He cries all the time and quits the photography classes. He is depressed for a couple of days because he cannot believe that her mother was killed. All the children in the photography class were asked if they would like to go somewhere else and get an education, and all of them agreed the same response, yes. That is an actual question and answer that Briski did to the children and they answered with no manipulation all. Briski started this project in 1998 by immersing herself in the red light district in India. She could not do it as a visitor, she had to stay and live in the brothels to understand this whole separate society within itself. She had to adapt her style of living to the brothels and try to understand these people. Briski thought that by teaching these children photography they would learn something they liked and would entertain them. Briski includes many facts and evidence that make this documentary believable and credible. She lived in the brothels for a long period of time before shooting Born into brothels so that makes it credible. Briski knows what she is delivering to the audience and the message she wants us to understand. Briski is a professional photographer that experienced living in the brothels. Years later she entered the brothels and met the children, that is when she decided to try to help them. Through the documentary she shows many places where she took children. The children went to the beach, the zoo and took pictures everywhere they visited. Remember that this kids do not leave the brothels so they do not know what else is outside waiting for them. These seven kids love her, she became part of their lives, and soon she tried to help them. Briski went through many difficult situations to get these kids accepted into a boarding school. Some of them got accepted and took a chance, but after a period of time either their parents removed them from school, or they decided to leave. Some of them because they got out of boarding school they threw their future to the ‘’garbage’’. All in all Zana Briski did a huge effort to put together Born into brothels and show the real world in the brothels. The documentary shows that ethos, pathos, and logos are well demonstrated in the documentary by giving examples of three special children because there is enough evidence, credibility, and emotional emphasis throughout the film.