Zana Briski

Zana Briski was not always known for her work in film. She is best known for her work as a phtographer. In 1995 Zana Briski traveled to India and during her stay she was very much taken with the women that she encountered. It was then that she decided to document the rough lives that these women had to endured. She focused on the practices of Female Infanticide and won a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and a National Press Photographers Association Picture of the Year Award. In 1997 she went back to India where she decided to focus on Calcutta's Red Light District. She lived in the brothels for a couple of months. During this time she photographed many of the women and started to teach their kids photography.

And that is when in 2001 she decided to pick up a film camera. The resulting outcome of this was the documentary Born Into Brothels which she co-directed with Ross Kauffman. This filmed the lives of many young children of both genders whose mothers are in the line and had broken homes. With these cameras the kids learn that they too have a point of view in the world and that they can do more than the lives they lead, and may one day have to join if nothing is done. In the film Zana works hard to explain to them why they like and dislike their photographs as well as trying to get them out of the brothels and into schools, so that they can pursue the dreams that they talk about. However she faces some problems with federal agencies when getting passports and other documents. She also has to convince some families that this is the best thing for their child, and the hardest part it seems was making the kids themselves see that this was the best for them, because all they knew was the lives they led and for some another life was a frightening thing. There were few success stories, but in those few its great to see how something like photography and the desire to photograph can change their lives.

Even though this film isn't the field in which Zana Briski works I think that she made an amazing portrayal of the children and the lives that they lead. I also think its important to mention that photography to an extend wasn't enough to get her point across and most importantly have the voices of the children of the brothels heard. In saying that it shows how this movie is a good example of the Auteur theory because she turned what she saw and what she wanted to say into an Academy Award Winning Documentary in 2006. It is also worth mentioning that in 2002 Zana Briski founded Kids With Cameras. It is a non-profit organization centered on "empowering marginalized children around the world through learning the art of photography".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Man1KT8VkY&feature=fvst