Born Into Brothels (dir. Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman) documents the filmmaker's experience with the children of the Calcutta Red Light District. Their parents are prostitutes and they have been ignored by society.
The filmmaker's teach the children photography and encourage them to document their experience and neighbors. They are able to get access to the residents of the red light district who are very reluctant to have their photo taken as everything they are participating in is illegal. As the students begin to excel in photography, the filmmaker's help them sell their artwork to help raise money and attempt to find boarding schools that will take them in. As the filmmaker's become more invested in these children's lives, they become more dedicated to finding a school that will accept the children as education is their only hope to escape a life in the red light district.
I really enjoyed this movie but I was a bit frustrated with the beginning of it as there are no subtitles and many interviews with the children speaking Bengali. I felt anxious each time the children would speak because I really wanted to know what on earth they were saying! However, I do think it was an interesting way for the filmmaker's to tell the children's story through their photographs alone.
I do think this film is a good example of how a documentary can bring awareness to an issue. Without the help of the documentarians, the children who were able to go to a school would have never received that opportunity. I also think this film provides a great example of how important artistic exploration is. Through their photography the children were able to find a sense of who they are in relation to their world. They had a way to explore their feelings about their situation through an artistic medium.
In short, I think this is a good movie but I wish there were subtitles.
1 comment:
I also saw this documentary recently and found it really moving, though a little sad about the conclusion, as realistic as it is.
But one thing I thought first when I saw this was about the depiction of the families of these children, and whether it would be considered slightly unfair or unethical to expose their behavior.
The thing that I noticed is that unfortunately, you can become a product of your environment. And that is why I thought Briski wanted to encourage these children to live away in schools.
But I couldn't help but feel sympathy for their parents as well, because unfortunately they too are victims of their environment...which is why I felt a little uncomfortable with their depictions in this film.
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