Extra Credit C

Extra Credit C

The film “Born Into Brothels” is a documentary that explores the lives of children who live and who’s families live in brothels in India. It started out as being just a documentary about women in the brothels but turned into more of the children’s perspective. The writer of this film, Zana Briski, lives and teaches in Calcutta, India. She has a photography class and gets to teach the kids that live in the Red Light District. She forms relationships with them and gets to know each and everyone of them and starts to care for them all. She eventually tries to find a way to get all of them out this district and into good schools so that they eventually may end up making something of their lives.

In this movie, there are many connections that can be made to our class. One very obvious one is how women are treated. They are not valued at all and the men have total control over women. They frequently get beaten and that is nothing that gets looked down upon. Emotional abuse is frequent as well. Also, girls are not very likely to get a good education. They are frequently put “into the line” and become prostitutes just like their mothers and grandmothers. It is highly unlikely that they make it out of their situations and make a name for themselves. All of the things that are shown in this movie are things that once- it is hard to believe- was how it was most everywhere in the world. Though our country has made great strides to overcome this equality issue, India still has a lot of work to do in women’s rights.

When I rented this film, I honestly did not think I would enjoy it at all. I thought it would be boring. As I watched the movie, though, I really started to feel for the kids that were born into this situation. The thing that really tore me apart was the fact that most of these kids understood how bad of a situation they were in and really truly wanted to get out and get a good education. Though they loved their family and stood by them, they really wanted to be better and do something with their lives. This really struck me and I really felt for each and every one of those kids.