MCN: Born Into Brothels


..Gary Dretzka ..Noah Forrest ..Leonard Klady ..R.J. Matson ..David Poland ..Douglas Pratt ..Ray Pride ..Michael Wilmington	___________________________________ ___________________________________ When you meet Ross Kaufman and Zana Briski after seeing their movie Born Into Brothels, the most powerful documentary I've seen at Sundance this year, you immediately want to throw back a few beers and play poker with him and marry her, knowing that you could never get away with an inconsequential life with a woman like this reminding you of what is really important. And then, a few minutes pass… And you feel pretty much the same way. Ask these two to describe how they got here and you get stories at the neat opposite ends of the spectrum. Zana Auntie, as she is described throughout the film, will explain how she never really meant to go to India, much less spend three years there teaching a group of children how to express themselves visually. Ross Uncle, who is never mentioned in the film, but was in Calcutta shooting for a total of six months, was almost ready to get out of "the biz," thinking that maybe he'd stay in the game as a professional cameraman and buying digital cameras towards that end. And yet, these two, together as a couple as they decided to make a movie about the brothels and Zana's experience with these children, came to the material with no less than the hand of the inevitable guiding them. Discussing the world they found themselves in, you would think that they were talking about Hollywood. The government is comfortable - off the record, of course - with the brothels, which serve as a release valve for the rather uptight community. The brothel owners want to keep their businesses going. And the children born into that world rarely get a chance to see anything beyond that world, so they naturally acclimate to their surroundings. A perfect eco-system, were it not for the fact that the women, children and ultimately even the men, are living in a cage without bars - the most terrible kind of victims, those who do not even know they are victims. At first, Ms. Briski tried to attack the central figures in the brothel system, the women. But she found a surprising resistance to the idea of change. So in time, she used her skills as an acclaimed photographer to offer something to the children of that world. She taught them how to express how they felt about the things they saw every day, still too young to be as jaded as their parents, and to bring those feelings to life with a camera. She was blown away with the natural ability of the kids. The gathered children quickly built a hierarchy within itself and brought their own shared knowledge to the teachings of Zora Auntie. After much discussion about whether working together was the best thing for their relationship, one tape shot by Briski, sent to Kauffman in New York, convinced them both that there was a film here that needed to be made. That led to two three month periods of shooting. First, there was the kind of pure "brothel kids learning to shoot photographs and coming up with amazing results in the midst of horrible conditions" shoot. And then, Kauffman returned and they shot most of the elements of the story in which Briski is as much the center of the story as the children are. The 85 minute finished product is the story of one person's fight to do something in the face of impossible odds, the story of some children getting a taste of opportunity for the first times in their lives, and the story of a system that doesn't want to find a solution to itself. Briski was not a fan of the idea of making a movie that has her as a leading character. But Kauffman knew. And you can almost hear the details of the conversation as you watch and listen to the two together. There is enough ego and intelligence in both of them never to want to admit it, but he seems to be the one who is of the world, aware of the problems of reality and ready to do the best he can to make extraordinary things work and she seems to be the true believer, who will not allow logic or the odds to ever get in her way. It's not that she seems flighty and he seems anal. Not at all. They are simply opposite numbers that add up to more than the sum of their very impressive parts. Adam & Eve on an Eastern European raft… wreck em. The next project for Briski is building a foundation to bring professional photographers to other troubled parts of the world to teach more children how to shoot photographs, a form of expression that has become more and more accessible in recent years. (However, it needs to be pointed out that Briski takes great pride in teaching the children how to edit themselves and to be selective about the images they embrace and the ones they leave behind.) Funding for the project will come from private donors and other charitable foundations, but also from sales of a book of the photography by the kids, as well as sales of the paintings in exhibits like the one currently taking place here in Park City. To see the images, please go to this site. The web page for the foundation and the sale of photos will be at kids-with-cameras.org. And do indulge your charitable instincts. There are few opportunities to have this kind of direct effect on the lives of people who are dying for the opportunity to express themselves, in some cases, literally. Also, to find out more about Zana Briski, try this site or this site or the last part of this CNN transcript. Ross Kauffman will also be part of the next year of festivals and screenings and book sales and whatever special opportunities that HBO can help bring to the table. By the time the film airs, likely in 2005, Briski's foundation should be moving along steadily, ready for the push that will come when people see the film. It is not an experience that will allow you to just switch the channel. And as time passes, I'm sure you will see more from both of these filmmakers, each improving the world in their own way. by David Poland	Born Into Brothels __________ Director: Ross Kauffman, Zana Briski __________ Documentary Country: USA Year: 2003 Time: 85 minutes __________ A Film by - Ross Kauffman, Zana Briski Editor - Nancy Baker