Although the pathos and poignancy of the onscreen participants won “Born into Brothels” the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, the commitment of the off screen participants
made the film possible.
“Born into Brothels” is a portrait of several
children in Calcutta whose mothers work as prostitutes. Zana Briski, a New York-based photographer, gives each child a camera, teaches them how to use it and helps them see the world in a different way. Despite their poverty, abuse and sordid surroundings, the documentary is a tribute to the resiliency of children and the restorative power of art.
It’s also a tribute to the people who believed the film should be made, people whose sense of decency compelled them to commit their time, energy and money to make certain the film would be made.
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One of those committed people was Pamela Tanner Boll, raised in Parkersburg, WV, with her three sisters and younger brother. She was a member of the swim team, a graduate of Parkersburg High, whose mother was a former
Parkersburg mayor who often brought her daughter to the Art Center on Saturdays.
A poet and painter, Pamela attended a small liberal arts college in Vermont, got a degree in English Literature and met her future husband, Hunter. Fluent in French and Dutch after a year in Belgium with the AFS exchange program, Pamela worked first in publishing, then commodity
trading, before rasing their three sons. Ned Tanner, Pam’s father, was a Texas oil man who had moved to West Virginia to work with his father-in-law in a photo finishing firm. Hunter joined a mergers and acquisitions
firm after getting
his MBA from Stanford. One of their most successful transactions
was Snapple.
Pamela and Hunter settled in Winchester, Massachusetts, where Pamela, still painting in her third floor studio, and recognized for her writing, began teaching part-time at Harvard. During those three years teaching, she says, “I made a lot of connections with people doing documentary work and telling stories about people’s lives.”
One connection was with Geralyn White Dreyfous, founder of the Philanthropic Initiative in Boston, who became the executive producer of “Born into Brothels”. Geralyn taught documentary
and narrative writing at Harvard and was a founder of DoubleTake Institute, an organization that brought educators, activists and storytellers together to explore the connections
between service, moral inquiry and storytelling.
Pam met Geralyn while working with the DoubleTake magazine, which focused on documentary writing and photography, material
that Pam used in some of her classes.
Geralyn had produced a documentary on the global trafficking of children for sex. When photographer Zana Briske saw the film, she showed Geralyn the raw footage of the Calcutta children.
Pamela says her friend “thought it was a real winner, something that could have a big impact.” Pamela had just begun interviewing women for a film about women artists who are mothers. She put her project on hold to help Geralyn find funding and distribution venues for ‘Born into Brothels”.
It was not a token effort. She and Hunter became sponsors for the film. Pamela, involved in a variety of editing, production and promotional activities, is credited as co-executive producer. The film’s additional sponsors included The Sundance Institute, New York State Council on the Arts, three foundations but just one other couple.
“Nobody has money for this kind of thing,” Boll said. “To get funding, you really have to talk to individuals.” The production took three years; editing, another year. Boll paid for a musical score, completed in six weeks, just in time for the film’s Sundance premier. So far, the film has won 25 awards, and opened in over 300 theatres nationally. Though most of the money goes to the distributor, it has grossed more than $3 million. The music soundtrack will be released this summer and the DVD will be released this fall. HBO bought the rights and will air the movie in July, but all of that covers only a small fraction of the film’s cost, according to Pam. “But”, she says, “that’s the reality of filmmaking. Money wasn’t the reason I got behind it. I got behind it because I found it to be a powerful, moving, transformational film.”
Many, many people agree.. “Born into Brothels” was honored by the Human Rights Watch, the Amnesty International Film Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival and received the Nestor Almendros Prize for Courage in Filmmaking.
Pamela says, “I’m happy it’s gotten so much acclaim, and I think it deserves it.”
She deserves it, too, for giving not just support,
but commitment to the liberating, empowering
force of the arts.
In June, at dedication ceremonies honoring her mother’s contributions to the Parkersburg Art Center, Pamela arranged a special showing of the film, and presented the director with a $150,000 check. As she says, artists do “vital, important work.”
So do the people who give them the opportunity
to pursue it.
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