I feel like the closest thing I've seen to an international film is Slum Dog Millionaire, and only because it gave me a small taste of what Bollywood and the lives of Indian citizens are like. Watching Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids was like watching home movies of the humanitarian trip I never took and reliving all the emotions, moments, and experiences that were never mine to have. The lives and stories and events Zana Briski was able to capture and share with the world were consistently breathtaking in that they were among the most horrible things kids could ever be raised around.
The lifestyle of prostitution was exposed as a kind of vicious cycle in Calcutta, bitterly inherited from one generation to another. One might assume that breaking free of the shackles that hold a generation down would be the only thing the would parents want for their children. It came as a great shock to me when, at the end of the film, updates regarding the children's' whereabouts frequently stated that parents refused to let them leave. They were held back, forced to drop out of school, made to stay in the brothels, and ultimately were doomed by their miserable progenitors to suffer the same fate as them. I feel like that alone demonstrated why, generation after generation, families didn't move on from the filthy lifestyles and try to find something better. They held each other back, they wanted everyone to live in misery with their decisions, and they didn't want anything good to happen to just one of them.
It was interesting to also see how mature the children were. Their observations, made through the lens of their new cameras, were insightful and unique. The pictures they took captured what the dirty world of Calcutta looked like from about four feet off the ground. The way Avijit was able to expound on how the subject of a picture seemed to extend outside the framework of the shot showed the bright mind that was being suppressed by his environment. It was easy to see why filmmakers like Zana Briski felt compelled to share their story with the world. Humans with sweet personalities, genuine curiosity and infinite potential were wasting away in these awful whore houses. They were taught to embrace what life they had been handed, expect little else, and cling to it jealously.
What amazed me was after all the excitement that came with having their photos displayed at shows, and after getting a real taste of what's out there and available with an education and a bit of hard work, many of those children still decided to return to the brothels. Was it because it whoring was the only life they knew, and because of their origins and upbringings they felt like they didn't qualify for a better life? Did they shy away from new opportunity?
The film moved me and left a lingering desire to, in some small way, do my part to help children in my immediate circles of influence realize their own infinite potential, and make sure they try and reach it.
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