Dear Friends:
I hope some of you remember the scandalous saga around the Oscar-winning documentary Born Into Brothels (2005). Briefly, I was involved with the film as its post-production translator; later, I was infuriated when I saw the final 80-minute product: I found it to be an extremely biased work full of self-aggrandizement, extreme distortion of facts, as well as massively unethical activities.
If you like, read the following letter I wrote to Hollywood before the film got the Oscars. My letter along with a relevant Outlook India story can be found at:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/partha_ban/born_into_brothels.htm .
(You can also Google it under Partha Banerjee and Born Into Brothels.)
NOW THIS BREAKING STORY:
http://www.anandabazar.com/archive/1080807/7cal4.htm
(in Bengali, gist below)
Yesterday, on August 7, Ananda Bazar Patrika (ABP), a major daily newspaper in Calcutta (the location of the documentary) broke the news that some children portrayed in the film brought a breach of promise lawsuit against the filmmakers. They did it on the ground that those including the much-publicized children who were promised that they'd share in some of the huge profit the film made did not receive any money at all. I have a feeling the lawsuit also includes the fact that the children's names were publicized across the globe, while the filmmakers had promised that their identities would be safeguarded. One of the kids also alleged that he didn't even know he was being filmed and interviewed for the purpose of making a documentary. In fact, that was an allegation frequently made by the sex workers themselves.
In my original letter to Hollywood AMPAS, I questioned whether the sex worker mothers' permissions were ever obtained by the filmmakers when they'd intruded deeply into their personal lives and professions. I subsequently found out by talking to these women that indeed, no such permission had ever been secured; moreover, the sex workers' union also told me that they were never informed that the filmmakers were filming them for this purpose.
(Additionally, music from Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy was used on Born Into Brothels, when the copyright holders specifically asked them not to use it.)
I translated about one hundred tapes full of such breach of privacy; and I did not get to translate many more. I know what was on the tapes, and I know what came out as the final product. Did I say it's scandalous?
I must tell you that even though as a media and human rights activist, I'm totally aware of big media's lies and distortions (I frequently write about it), in this case, the journalist who broke this important story is pretty much telling the truth.
The fact is, the filmmakers' attempt to show off one of the kids Avijit as the poster boy of their "successful mission" is outrageous. This kid also phoned me in New York and had a long, rough argument with me. How he got my phone number is anybody's guess.
The fact that a happy and jovial girl like Puja (who was greatly exploited by the filmmakers) is now a disclosed-identity sex worker at this very young age, and the other kids on the film are hopeless and lost (not to mention anything about the sex worker mothers who now feel cheated) is enough reason for bringing any breach of promise lawsuit against the filmmakers.
Nobody has approached me on this lawsuit and I don't know what the real motive is behind it, but if anyone asks me to testify on it to narrate my insight and experience, I'd be more than happy to do it.
I have no sympathy for self-aggrandizement and Hollywood-blessed lies, and that too, at the expense of poor peoples' privacy and misery.
Thanks for your attention and action.
-Partha
http://www.geocities.com/chokmoki
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Partha Banerjee
M.Sc. (Journalism), Ph.D. (Biology)
http://www.geocities.com/chokmoki
