[Reader-list] Re: sudesh's critique

[rochelle pinto]

This is yet another response from someone who hasn't seen this film. Sudesh's critique may raise important questions, but these questions apply across the board to a range of media practitioners and academics who are parasitical on the communities they study/ report/publicise/raise awareness about. The vehemence against this particular filmmaker would have to be justified only after watching this film - or made more explicit in his critique. 
 
I also think his anger over the question of whether or not to screen it in India is misplaced. It is a relief to find that the filmmaker recognised that her subjects have a right to demand privacy and ensure that their lives are not endangered. This sensitivity may be quite disingenuous as Sudesh says, if DVDs are already available. Less disingenuous, however, than his own question - why are indians to be feared as an audience for this film?
 
Perhaps because we have no way of addressing prostitution decently as a society that will allow prostitutes to live safely once their identities are made public; perhaps because we routinely target them as the bearers of disease and the source of immorality. Perhaps because we won't allow their children to lead a life that anyone outside the profession does.  With our obsession with caste and lineage, those crippled with the wrong kind have to grapple with its shadow permanently. This can scarcely be news to anyone in this country.

		
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