The Reel Thing
Long-time filmmaker and CU professor makes film about human trafficking in Nepal
By STEPHANIE OLSEN
Colorado Daily Staff Writer

When it comes to the exploitation of children, the old adage is often true: out of sight, out of mind.
      But the selling and trafficking of children into prostitution and slavery is very much alive in parts of the world, and one Boulder woman has produced a film to help spread the word to as many people as possible.
      “This film is about raising awareness,” says Kathleen Man, who made the film “Sita: A Girl From Jambu.” “The more ways you can engage people, the better.”
      Man became passionate about fighting human trafficking after she became involved in “Free A Child,” a Boulder-based non-profit organization dedicated to stopping the trafficking of children into sexual slavery, in 2004.
      According to the “Free A Child” Web site, girls, as young as 10-years-old, are being sold into prostitution and slavery by their families. The Web site claims these girls will be beaten, burned, tortured and deprived of food light and movement. Additionally, the children are highly susceptible to infections, cervical cancer, repeated pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Anywhere from 60 to 70 percent of the girls will contract HIV and/or AIDS, the Web site says.
      It is the plight of these young girls that prompted Man to educate others in her own way – through film.
      Man says she has been involved in filmmaking “since forever.”
      “We just grew up in a household where before we could remember, we were going to movies and discussing them at length afterwards,” she says.
      The 31-year-old Hawaii native is a tenure-track assistant professor in film studies at CU-Boulder, and is following in the family footsteps.
      Her father is a professor of film studies at the University of Hawaii and her older brother is a filmmaker.
      Man started making videos at age 13 while she was at Punaho, a prep school in Hawaii. The school had a television department and station, and she took full advantage.
      Man chose to go to Yale University for her undergraduate degree in film studies and continued to make films whenever she could. After Yale, she attended the University of Iowa and received a Master of Fine Arts in film and video production.
      From Iowa, Man moved out to Paris for two years in 1999 as a Fulbright Fellow and produced her award-winning short film “L’Entretien,” or “The Interview,” which appeared in more than 20 international and domestic film festivals and won accolades at the 2003 Colorado Biennial, the Humbolt International Short Film Festival, The Ashland Independent Film Festival and the Toronto Online Film Festival.
      While in Paris, Man got her job at CU and arrived in Boulder in 2001.
      With the help of grants from CU, Man has made her first feature-length film, “Sita: A Girl From Jambu.”
      Man says inspiration usually comes from personal experience, something she’s read or a place she’s visited. With “Sita,” she says it was different.
      “This time, for the first time in my life, I made a film about an issue that prompted me to take action,” she says.
      Man took a sabbatical from teaching in the spring of 2004 and became involved with the organization “Free A Child” at that time.
      When members of the group went to Nepal to visit their partner organization “General Welfare Pratisthan” (GWP), an outreach program that fights against child trafficking, Man decided to go along and bring her equipment.
      “I went there not knowing what I was going to do,” she says. “I was as surprised as anybody when I found my film there.”
      Man began shooting footage on her third day in the country.
      She was joined by Jason Goode, one of her students at CU who acted as her assistant director.
      Man based her film on the “street dramas” that are performed by girls in Nepal. The “street dramas” tell the story of a girl that is sold into prostitution and becomes infected with AIDS and is later rejected by her family when she attempts to return home.
      The “street drama” Man portrays in her film is called “Bichari Sita,” or “Poor Sita.”
      “Sita: A Girl From Jambu” is an adaptation of “Poor Sita,” according to Man, and cuts between actual footage of the “street drama” and the adaptation of the drama, which is fictional story of Sita, based on non-fictional events.
      Sunita Pakhrin is the star of the “street drama,” and also the star of the film.
      “She gave a performance that makes me cry because she is, in essence, telling her own story,” Man says.
      Man was only able to film 17 days of the four weeks she was in Nepal. Each day, she said, her safety was an issue.
      “Shooting the film was interesting because there was a certain amount of danger to it,” she says.
      When Man was in Nepal, she says the Maoist guerrilla insurgency was in full swing and during the four weeks the group called a five-day strike, forcing Man to remain in her hotel room for that entire time.
      She says she and her small crew would hear reports sometimes of a murder 10 miles away from where they were staying, preventing them from visiting surrounding villages.
      Additionally, there was an 8 p.m. curfew every evening leaving limited time to shoot night scenes.
      Man also says it was difficult to film in the town because so many people in the village were captivated by the camera – a rare object in Hetauda.
      “To us it’s nothing special, but to them it’s like, ‘What is this?’” she says.
      Man says crowds of children would surround her while filming took place.
      “If you listen very carefully, you’ll hear whispers,” she says about the film.
      Man only used “real people” as actors, and says she is most proud of the film’s pure portrayal of the villagers’ real way of life.
      “Every step of the way I tried to be as pure in intention as possible in how I represented them,” says Man.
      Man says she realizes human trafficking is a complicated and powerful subject, but says she made the film for educational reasons, not to exploit these people’s way of life.
      It’s something she says she has grappled with.
      “It is a question that is at the core of making films, period,” she says. “My goal is to get the film shown as widely as possible.”
      Man received $15,000 in grants from CU, and spent $2,000 of her own money to put the film together and cover all expenses.
      She says she wants to show the film in Nepal starting this summer, because not only is it about what the United States as a country can do to help the situation, it is also about what communities in Nepal can do as well.
      Man says she’ll be surprised if she makes any money from the movie.
      “The intention of the film is very clear. It’s nothing more then to help them tell their story,” she says. “The manipulation is to get you to care.”

Contact Stephanie Olsen about this story at 303-443-6272 ext. 125 or at olsen@coloradodaily.com.

CU Film Studies Professor Examines Trafficking In New Film
January 6, 2006

Click here to read the story!

Sita’s Story
by Jenn Weede

Everyone has a story. Award-winning filmmaker Kathleen Man tells Sita’s on January 13, at the Dairy Center for the Arts as part of a fundraiser to benefit Free A Child. Shot in and around Hetauda, Nepal, in January through March 2004, Sita, a Girl from Jambu is a powerful and honest narrative documentary feature film about a young Nepalese village girl who is trafficked into sexual slavery in Mumbai. After contracting HIV/AIDS in the brothel, Sita must make the long journey home to her estranged family.

“Sita, a Girl from Jambu seeks to educate audiences about the root causes of child exploitation in the global sex trade, and educates the local population about the nature of HIV/AIDS, how it is caught and transmitted,” said Man.†“There have been several recent documentaries on this issue, but none to my knowledge offer an intimate view of life in Nepal and the cultural and economic factors that lead to the exploitation and prostitution of women and children.” The roles of Sita as well as the other female cast members are played by the women in Free A Child’s anti-trafficking program in Nepal, and the film portrays actual footage of the street drama performed by the women and girls in Free A Child’s anti-trafficking program.

Man emphasizes that the fight against sexual slavery must happen on four fronts:† community-wide education and awareness; empowerment of women and children; law enforcement; and rehabilitation. Most efforts focus on the latter two, the raiding of brothels and prosecution of criminals followed by the sheltering of liberated victims. However, sexual trafficking will not stop until the supply and demand factor is addressed. Sita stresses the importance of awareness and vigilance, as well as how we can transform the landscape of sex trafficking until there is no one vulnerable enough to trick and sell into a life of slavery.

Braving the escalating violence during the Maoist rebellion in Nepal in early 2004, and not long before King Gyanendra seized absolute power in a coup on February 1, 2005, Man drew upon various narrative and documentary traditions, employed a local cast of non-professional actors, and produced the film for $2500, including travel expenses.

Inspired by French New Wave directors, Italian neorealists and the mavericks of New American cinema, Man drew upon cinema-verite techniques to develop and produce Sita. She worked with non-actors and shot in remote villages, in the very homes of some of the poorest people in the world to achieve a level of realism which reveals the context in which these people live and labor. The result is a complete picture of the root causes of trafficking and sexual slavery: poverty, vulnerability, and the disempowerment of women.

“Poverty and the subjugation of women around the world can no longer be ignored. It's time countries with greater resources and power make a long-lasting commitment to help their poorer neighbors,” Man said.

A 1999 Fulbright Fellow in Paris, France, and an award-winning filmmaker, Man received an M.F.A. in film and video production and an M.A. in communication studies both from the University of Iowa, and holds a B.A. with honors and distinction in film studies from Yale University. Man has been an assistant professor of film production in the Film Studies Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder since 2001, where she teaches directing, cinematography, editing and screenwriting.

“I hope that Sita moves people enough to prompt them to ask themselves what they can do to help those that do not have the same opportunities that they do,” said Man. All proceeds from the Jan. 13 showing benefit Free A Child.

For more information about the film, go to www.sitaagirlfromjambu.com
For more information about Free A Child, go to www.freeachild.org

Recently, during halftime at the CU vs Nebraska football game, a short production spotlighting the film and Kathleen was shown.

To watch it, click here!