Born Into Brothels Reflection

1. Was there a specific scene that got to you? Describe and explain how it moved you (Angry? Curious? Delighted? Motivated?). Give a lot of detail, and really dive in to how it affected you. Don’t hold back.

Overall, I could say this entire film in its entirely largely got to me, but there were a few moments that stuck out. I have a soft spot in my heart for children. The summers entering my junior and senior years of high school I saved up my income of a year working part time as a bus boy to pay for my mission trip with my mom and members of my church to travel to her home country of the Philippines. In-between outreaches and group work, we returned to the camp where we spent our free time hanging out with a group of about 25 children that all found their way into this boarding school that saved them from home lives filled with sexual abuse, homelessness, domestic violence, and the most horrid poverty any child should ever go through. Many of these children's living conditions prior to arriving at the school were similar, and sometimes worse than the home lives portrayed at the brothel in the documentary. I learned first hand that despite living through the most heinous home lives possible, the children were finally happy. 

The happiness on the children's faces in the movie is the exact same as the children I spent time with for two summers. Despite what they've been through, for both the kids I met and the kids in this film, the children obtain the naïve child-like happiness that puts on the blinders for the evil they've encountered in their past. It is evident that for the director and woman the film revolves around, Zana Briski, the children had the same rubbing effect on her. 

There was one particular moment early in the film that shook me and showed one of the differences between the children I worked with and those portrayed in the documentary. The children I spent time with were happy and optimistic, fantasizing about a life where they grow up and have nice jobs, were rich, had beautiful families, or living in the United States. For Tapasi, one of the young girls involved in the photography class, dreaming about a better life just isn't realistic. "I never really think about being rich. Even if I was poor, I would have a happy life. One has to accept life as being sad and painful...that's all."  

To me, those are profoundly devastating words from a young child who's living conditions has already sanded down the hopefulness of life that every child should have--so much to the point that this innocent young little girl has already realized that her life ahead of her is bleak, and already is.

2. What surprised you?

The main thing that surprised me after viewing was the fact the several of the children were pulled out of school by their families, or they chose to leave school and return home, and even that through research I found out that one of the girls turned down the opportunity to study in the United States to return to the same brothel community to work as a sex worker like her mother. It's heartbreaking that despite being offered a way out of that way of life and have something to work for, whether it was their own decision or sometimes the family's, that opportunity was ripped out beneath them only to go back to where they started. 

The children throughout the film looked so happy. When they had the camera in their hands they had the ability to be creative and explore their talents and imagination. While it only made sense that not everyone of them could turn their newfound hobby into a new life as they were to grow up, it is saddening to see how some of them just were unable to escape the shackles around their ankles that their social status had on them in the brothel community. 

3. What questions remain after the viewing? What feelings stayed with you after the film? Did they “pop up” in your life in unexpected ways? When? How? What was that like?

A question I have after viewing, which I was unable to find the answer to, is how much has Zana Briski kept in contact with any of the children in the film. It it clear that in the film the connection she had with the children is one that would stay strong in her heart her entire life. My curiosity and fascination with this film just wants me to sit down with the director, Zana, and talk about what the kids are up to. Since many of the children fell back into the the same lifestyle as their parents, I'm sure being able to reconnect with them would be extremely difficult. I've found out however that Aviji Halder, one of the children that showed exceptional talent in photography, went on to graduate from New York University and continues to live in New York in the same career path. That was heartwarming to find out through research after I watched the film. 

Many of the same feelings I felt in the Philippines when I spent time sitting, talking, and playing with the children there, came rushing through me during my viewing of this film. A few times I had to pause and fully gather myself because of the heavy content this documentary shows the viewers. It tugged on every single one of my heart's strings that are deeply sensitive to children. It made me uneasy, and often times sickened, as the film showed me the lives these innocent children are prisoners to, and the way they are treated and led into a life of sex work. The moments of joy I felt watching the doc were when we are shown the moments in which the children's faces light up when they're with Zana pursuing their new hobby and being able to act like normal children. They show more happiness than the children, and adults, that grow up in the lifestyle we've become numb to --with a happy family, a loving home, too much food to the point we eat because we're bored, toys, technology, school, countless outfits, iPhones, Instagram.... So many things that we don't need. So many things more that we feel we deserve out of life. So many things we take for granted yet feel like we just need a bit more to fit in. All that the children in this film were given was a cheap camera. And for a small portion in their lives, they felt like they could achieve anything.