CBC Radio One host and Voluntary Service Overseas volunteer Priya Ramu knew she had become part of the Bangladeshi brothel community when she was left taking care of a baby in a slum neighbourhood of Patuakhali.

“By the end of this shoot, we were sitting in the brothel on the main stroll,” Ramu said when she met with the Straight. “One of the women dropped her newborn and went off to do her chores. There was no discussion. ‘Take care of her, I have stuff to do.’ ”

Ramu, with Canadian filmmaker Dominique Keller and a local translator, was there filming Brothel Justice, a short documentary that captures slum brothel life. The film follows day-to-day life as ghetto residents try to govern themselves with the organization Shakti Natri Sangho (Women’s Strength United). It captures a conservative Muslim society that has de facto decriminalized prostitution and where the busiest night of the year in the brothel is on Eid, the end of Ramadan. This is not just a prostitution stroll but an entire shantytown that exists with its own moral codes and street laws.

“There was a mentality in the place that we need to cut them off [from] the services, allow them to be completely stigmatized, but that the authorities have to allow them to exist and function as a necessary part of society. They [the women] feel trapped; they can’t get out...A lot of the issues we face in terms of prostitution in Canadian society, like self-esteem and sexual identity, were shared realities,” said Ramu.

Ramu will be attending a screening at the Vancouver English Centre (250 Smithe Street) on Friday (March 28). Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and admission is by donation.