Photographer Zana Briski began work on Born into Brothels when she gave cameras to several children of Calcutta prostitutes and tought them to express themselves through images. She decided she wanted to document this process, so she called on her close friend DP and editor Ross Kauffman, who came to her join her in India. There they tackled the project in earnest.
Filmmakers
On: Born into Brothels
F&V: When did you realize there was a film to be made?
RK: I knew what it would take to make a film. We actually talked about making a 10- or 15-minute film but it quickly became apparent that it would be longer. I told Zana I didn’t want to do it because I was editing and didn’t want to get into being a struggling filmmaker. But she went and bought two digital video cameras and two Sony PD100s. She took one and gave one to me. Then she went to Calcutta, shot some video and sent some back to me for my critique. She knew as soon as I saw this footage, I’d want to go, and that’s what happened.
F&V: What did you discover during the editing process?
RK: Our editing was just going in there and discovering the footage and seeing what’s in there with no preconceived notion — to try to just see and react to the material. We screened all 170 hours of footage with our editor. We had another editor who worked for seven months and I had edited for the last four and a half months. We screened 170 hours of material and we all reacted to the same material that was coming at us, and we all sort of went with those feelings and reactions. Then [we] just sort of pruned away — sculpted a rough cut and then just worked our way towards the finished product.
F&V: Has making this changed you as a photographer?
ZB: Certainly. I haven’t taken pictures in three years and I’m dying to get back to my own photography, but I don’t think really that it will affect it.
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