[Reader-list] film on sonagachi wins oscar

[harleen walia]

Dear All,
 
I have been following this discussion with a great deal of interest. As I have understood it the focus of concern seems to have boiled down to 'why cant the film be shown in India?'
 
A lot of rhetoric has been exchanged since then about xenophobia, racism, anthropologists etc; but what really pushed me into responding was meera's letter yesterday mentioning 'Sanlaap'. I found her concerns about - 'what does the subject of your story get'/ ie. reciprocity thought provoking, and wondered if some more information might add a reality perspective to this story. So regardless of the bengali/kolkatan 'intellectuals' [!] resistance to face the sordid greys of their environment [meera's contention, not mine!] here goes...for what its worth!
 
Perhaps some information as a backdrop to start with: 
Being the mental health proffessional who first oriented Zana Brisky [the film maker] on trafficking, child sexual abuse, commercial sexual exploitation, and prostitution on her very first visit to India and Sanlaap a good 6 years ago, I feel a little responsible for a situation which has resulted in this discussion [amongst other things! ]....
 
Even though I would personally like to exonerate Zana of all responsibility [and/or malafide exploitative intentions] for the outcome of her film [and feel on the contrary that her orientation just did not teach her enough]; as a development professional, I have a question about whether we can ever be divorced from the outcome of our actions. I presume Zana had a story to tell, or was sufficiently moved by the lives of the children she touched to want to make things different for them, but did this desire to 'make things better' go hand in hand with information/understanding/and thought about impact,  or was the film just that for her 'a film' is a question I would like to ask? And in either case were the subjects of her story aware of her intentions and prepared about the impact?
 
I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that the title of the documentary 'Born into a Brothel' makes it sufficiently clear that it is a documentary on second generation issues in brothels/red light areas and not on first generation prostitution. This is very important to keep in mind whilst discussing impact on lives. I reitterate, we are talking about the lives of children of women in prostitution. The quality of life that these children experience has its own set of dynamics altogether. I would request anyone who is taking the time to read this mail to just be with me and flow with my story for a couple of paragraphs more...

' I am a 16 year old girl [/or boy], living in sonagachi, [or kamatipura, or buyana beach or any other red light area in India that you would like to  see me in]... 

as far back as I can remember, my home was always full of sound, light, music and darkness...                                                            I remember being constantly asked to go out of my house because ma had important work to finish inside;                I remember ma crying and shouting for help because Anup uncle was hitting her so hard and asking for money;                                  I remember the smell in my small one room house, of ma/warmth/and maach bhaja  or then ma/pain/ paan [betel leaf] and the strange smelling jaul [water in bangla] that was always with her;  I remember the narrow lanes and the thousand corners to hide in amongst slush/roaches/pigs and film songs;                                    I remember ma dragging me by my hand and taking me to a small room in the area where an aunty said ' she should come every single day or I cannot put her into the big school.....'

And days passed by slowly into months and years...I was studying in the big school till sometime back....I now understood what that strange smell around ma meant, I also pushed and sceamed at sudhir uncle the other day when he tried and pulled me into one of the corners. The lanes that I grew up in were familiar still but now there is a strange restlessness in that air; it's as if a hundred eyes follow me as I enter the area... I have also got used  to getting off my bus a few stops ahead of our area so that my school friends do not realise where I stay exactly. You see by now I knew what to tell people and what not..                                                                     But with every passing day my need to find answers to all these questions that are eating me up inside is growing....and the need to be able to say ' who I am, and why I feel this way..' without any shame or guilt or lies. I love my mother and I hate my life...         then I met my friend...she
 listened  and I could finally talk... she spoke about rights and space and telling my story. I was so happy to be able to just talk without losing the person I was speaking to. I was so happy to not have to lie. I was so happy to be able to run away from my cruel questioning world.

We [some friends and us] began taking photographs; she taught us. we felt so free, so powerful. Not only were we being able to express ourselves in pictures but also in words. she said she wanted to make a film on our stories but that we would be safe as our photogaphs would not appear so no one would be abe to recognise us...

I have not been going to school for a few days now, they were pointing and whispering...ma has been crying and abusing me; what have we done wrong. I just wanted to tell my story without any lies or colour. Just my story, so that I could be free, of all those stories and questions in my head. What did I do wrong?...'

 When we as caregivers [and we are all caregivers in a childs world regardless of the capacity in which we engage with a child] enter a childs life there is a certain onus involved. An onus we cannot run away from, regardless of theoritical ssues such as artistic license, freedom of expression etc. It is our responsibility to prepare a child for a journey we have decided the child should embark on, and to protect the child not only from the visble and not so visible impacts of that journey but also from ourselves...that is important. 

The rest of the world is quite unimportant in my opinion and governed by many more things which are quite beyond our control. I wonder if Informed consent was taken, and all these results talked about? I wonder if we really care...?

Harleen

Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your life partneronline.
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