In this blog post, we will explore why the children had no choice but to return to the red-light district, caught between the hope offered by photography and the wall of structural reality depicted in ‘Born Into Brothels’.
Born Into Brothels Synopsis
The story begins by introducing the children’s backgrounds, living conditions, and names one by one. The director, who had come to document the lives of the women in this red-light district, reportedly shifted the camera’s focus to the children after discovering their presence on location. Photographer Jana Bryski opened a small photography class for the children and placed a small film camera in each of their hands.
Jana Bryski conducted photography lessons with the children and held an exhibition featuring the photos they took. The financial proceeds from the exhibition were used for the children. A child named Abhijit, who showed exceptional talent in photography, even visited Amsterdam as India’s representative, and photos taken by the children were featured on the front page of a newspaper. The children’s hopes soared. However, for most of the children, the future did not change as dramatically as they had hoped.
Ultimately, Abhijit gained an opportunity for an overseas published photo exhibition. After returning to the red-light district of Calcutta, he enrolled in the Hope School. Manik couldn’t attend school due to his father’s opposition, and Pooja dropped out because of her mother’s decision. Shanti left the boarding school of her own accord, while Gor remained in the red-light district. Tapashi ran away from home and enrolled in a girls’ school, but Sujita couldn’t leave the brothel because her aunt wouldn’t permit her enrollment. The children experience emotional healing through “photography,” but ultimately, the fundamental problems surrounding them remain unresolved.
Children exposed to poverty, various forms of violence, and illegality. For these children, for whom the Calcutta red-light district—a place with no safe boundaries—is their entire world, the documentary’s final scene, which seemed like a warm and hopeful ending, instead reveals the reality that most of the children return to the red-light district.
Sequence Summary
Sequence 1
Night in the red-light district. A young girl, a young woman, an older woman.
Dark alleys stretch on.
Sequence 2
Begins with a young girl’s voice: “The men who come here are bad.” A drunk man appears, shouting and hurling insults. The face of the young girl, speaking gloomily about when she must start work, is shown, followed by black-and-white photographs of the red-light district. The photographer explains how he came to refuse to stay as a visitor, instead living with them and teaching photography. Simultaneously, scenes of young children taking photography lessons are cross-cut.
Sequence 3
The living conditions of children in the red-light district are revealed, followed by scenes of children taking photographs with small film cameras.
Sequence 4
The photographer’s efforts to send the children to boarding school to protect them from the red-light district contrast with the children’s own desire to attend school.
Sequence 5
The children’s photographs are exhibited in New York. The photographer’s efforts to use donations and proceeds from photo sales for the children’s benefit, along with the world’s attention, are presented.
Sequence 6
The sequence continues with Abhijit, who showed exceptional talent in photography, visiting Amsterdam, and some children enrolling in boarding school. However, the reality of the children who returned to the red-light district is also shown.
Format
This documentary aids understanding through narration by the photographer and the children. It adopts a typical explanatory documentary format, centered on commentary and an explanatory narrative progression. Footage and photographic materials from the red-light district are presented as evidence revealing reality, and the editing is also directed towards concretely showing the reality of the red-light district. Its nature as a problem-raising work is clear in that it directly addresses a social issue.
Born Into Brothels Review
It made me think deeply about why most of the children ultimately have no choice but to return to the red-light district.
The latter part of the documentary briefly mentions the reasons why the children return to Calcutta. In many cases, they are forced to return by adult decisions or are not even permitted to attend boarding school.
Although the caste system was officially abolished in the constitution after India’s independence in 1947, deep-rooted discrimination and customs based on social status remain pervasive throughout society. The traditional hierarchical structure dividing society into Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras, along with the discriminatory consciousness toward the so-called untouchables positioned at the bottom, has shaped social structures for centuries. It is known that a belief persisted that “merely touching them renders one impure.” Today, the Indian government prohibits discrimination and implements various protective policies. However, it is undeniable that in reality, structural inequalities persist in certain regions and among certain groups.
The caste system has led people to perceive maintaining one’s place as a natural order. Furthermore, the concept of reincarnation, understood as part of Hindu philosophy, has also been interpreted as contributing to the perpetuation of this order. People are said to live with the hope that doing many good deeds in this life will lead to rebirth in a higher caste in the next. While this must be understood within complex religious and social contexts, observing the children’s reality in the documentary inevitably brought these structural factors to mind.
In the documentary, the photographer visits various educational institutions to send the children to school. School officials ask where they live, and upon hearing they reside in Sonogachi, they cannot hide their surprise. The photographer explains that he wants the children to escape the red-light district, noting some have already been forced into prostitution and wish to leave. Yet the response is cold: “No. No one will take them. Who would?”
This question sounds less like a simple refusal and more like a query directed at society as a whole. There are clearly problems that are difficult to solve immediately. Throughout the documentary, a suffocating sense of helplessness washed over me, like swallowing a hard-boiled egg whole. But if everyone were to give up simply because it can’t be solved right now, the outcome might be even more tragic than the ending of this documentary.
We cannot live leaving only the question, “Who will accept us?”
Even if we cannot create massive change immediately, I believe that continuously paying attention to social issues I was unaware of, and reflecting on what I can do to help someone still suffering, is the starting point for all change.
There’s a saying that a small, insignificant breeze, like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, can trigger a storm-like, massive change. Small changes can ultimately lead to enormous transformations. Therefore, we must choose movement, however feeble, that never stops. That choice is the quietest yet most solid beginning that can one day change the reality of children who had no choice but to return to the red-light district.
