''In the Flesh: three lives in prostitution'' is a 2003

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

documentary by

Bishakha Datta Bishakha Datta is a film maker, activist and a former journalist. She is the co-founder and executive director of Point of View, based in Mumbai, a non-profit working in the area of gender, sexuality and women's rights. She also serves on the bo ...

about the lives of three Indian sex workers, written for a family audience. It is a low-budget film set in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

and

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

that describes the everyday life of its subjects. It was filmed in 2000, and released in India in 2002, before an international release in 2003.Fro
an interview with the director
Show Me Your Indies, 28 August 2009. The subjects of the documentary were chosen with help from the

Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee The Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee ( bn, দুর্বার মহিলা সমন্বয় সমিতি ''Durbar Mohila Shômonbôe Shomiti'' "Unstoppable Women's Synthesis Committee"), or simply Durbar, is a collective of 65,0 ...

(a Calcutta sex worker collective) and at Calcutta's Sex Workers Mela, an annual event held in the city's

Salt Lake Stadium The Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (VYBK; ), commonly known as the Salt Lake Stadium, is an all-seater multi-purpose stadium located in Bidhannagar, with current capacity of 85,000 spectators. Named after Swami Vivekananda, the stadium f ...

that attracts over 10,000 people a day.

Plot

''In The Flesh'' follows three sex workers: Shabana (who works the highways near

), Bhaskar (a

hijra Hijra, Hijrah, Hegira, Hejira, Hijrat or Hijri may refer to: Islam * Hijrah (often written as ''Hejira'' in older texts), the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE * Migration to Abyssinia or First Hegira, of Muhammad's followers ...

who sells sex to men in

), and Uma (a former theater actress who lives in a Calcutta brothel). The film follows their daily routines, from picking up customers and sex to their private social lives to violence and activism.

History and reception

The idea for the film came about while Datta and Point of View were researching a report for the grassroots organization Sangram about its work with sex workers over the previous 10 years. After its Indian release in 2002, it was screened internationally in 2003:From
Freedom Films India
list of documentaries. * Global Visions Film and Video Festival, Canada 2003 * Three Continents Human Rights Film Festival, Cape Town, South Africa 2003 * South Asia Human Rights Film and Video Festival, New York 2003 * International Video Festival, Trivandrum 2003

References

{{reflist

External links

Indieflix
has a short clip and stills online. 2003 films Indian independent films Indian documentary films Documentary films about prostitution in India Documentary films about women in India Films set in Kolkata English-language Indian films Films set in Mumbai 2000s English-language films