One tells of her father's urging, "Go to Thailand and see the world." What he meant was for her to see the inside of a bar or a brothel and send some money home. In her village, a girl might earn a bowl of noodles for a day's work. In Bangkok, she might be dressed in colorful fabrics -- "I was so proud in these new clothes" -- and perhaps be able to save a few dollars to help support her parents.
Another tells of being only 12 when she found herself in the care of a mama-san who bargained with customers over her price. With little understanding of the language away from her tribe, she says that when she first heard the phrase "selling your body," she thought it meant cutting off parts of herself for sale.
Such is the testimony of "Sacrifice," Ellen Bruno's report featuring interviews with a few of the girls who are the merchandise in Thailand's thriving commerce in sex.
The material is strong, much stronger than the imagery with which Ms. Bruno embellishes her work. Her reach for visual poetry, though evocative at times, can also be at odds with the plain-spoken accounts of the victims. Ms. Bruno finds it difficult to resist a field of waving grass or a colorful swath of fabric; she goes in for blurry images of young dancers, and she likes clouds.
The documentary, part of the "P.O.V." series, is compelling when it allows the girls to speak, but toward the end especially, it turns fuzzy. A girl's death is described this way: "Death comes quickly, hastened by fear and anger and loneliness." There is flame on the screen, and a childish voice says, "They burn all that is her."
The result is more affected than affecting, much less persuasive than the simple memory of a police raid ("Just another guy coming into my room"), a pregnancy ("I didn't think of it as my baby"), the four or five customers a night ("I guess they think we are cute") or the confession of an unschooled girl that she couldn't add up the number of men she had to service during her six childhood years in a brothel.
PRODUCTION NOTES
'P.O.V.': Sacrifice
10 p.m. ET Tuesday on PBS
Ellen Bruno, producer, director, writer, camera and editor; Hseng Noung Lintner, assistant director/Thailand; Eva Ilona Brzeski, Elizabeth Finlayson, additional editors; Nathaniel Dorsky, consulting editor; Yiga Josayma, narration; Nang Kham, singer. A co-presentation of the National Asian American Telecommunications Association. For P.O.V.: Lisa Heller, executive producer. For American Documentary Inc.: Ellen Schneider, executive director; Ward Chamberlin, chief executive officer.