Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids

written and directed by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman

low expectation:  
           I remain cynical towards documentaries that show unfortunate people in a foreign land with the intentions of making audiences sympathetic.  I can remain so because my experiences with most human beings in the western world have given me reason to prejudge them all as having alterior motives and quick detachment abilities.  Even I, a westerner, am easily detached from the sufferings in the world but I am sympathetic and I tend not to be one of the many who can feel sorry for poor children in India and then celebrate mass consumption holidays.
        Not that the brothels in Calcutta have any relation to those starving in Africa but I am now thinking again of the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" which has been in my mind this season thanks to the DVD release of Live Aid.  What an asinine title to a song by rich people to support a nation with a large number of non-Christians.  I would be so insulted that I'd deny any crates of food they drop on my house. 
         Briski and Kauffman surely made a good documentary - it won the audience award at Sundance - and they probably are helping many of the children over there, even now that they are back in the states celebrating their achievements. I just really hope that they didn't make the film in order to win awards and acclaim and to feel good about themselves. 

follow-up:
     Eventually Born into Brothels has transferred attention from the avidity of creative youths to the struggle of a woman’s humanitarian efforts. It is great that Briski got personal and wants to help, but allowing the documentary to represent herself as a protagonist is too self-serving and it diminishes the desires and the realities of the children’s lives.

the film cynic review

website:
Kids With Cameras

synopsis/press release:

   BORN INTO BROTHELS, an inspiring look at the transformative journey of a group of extraordinary children in Calcutta's red light district was the Winner of the Documentary Audience Award at Sundance 2004, in addition to over 20 other major film festival prizes.

A tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art, BORN INTO BROTHELS is a portrait of several unforgettable children who live in the red light district of Calcutta where their mothers work as prostitutes. Zana Briski, a New York based photographer, gives each of these youngsters a camera and teaches them how to take pictures, simultaneously causing them to look at their world with new eyes. Together with Ross Kauffman, Briski captures the magical way in which beauty can be found in the most unlikely of places and how a bright and promising future becomes a possibility for children who previously had no future at all.

Touching and heartfelt, yet devoid of sentimentality, BORN INTO BROTHELS defies the tear-stained tourist snapshot of the global underbelly. Briski spent years with these children and became a part of their lives. Their photographs are prisms into their souls, rather than anthropological curiosities, and a true testimony to the power of the indelible creative spirit. -- © ThinkFilm

Expectation Key


there's no possible way we will even see this

we'll eventually see this but we aren't really expecting much

anticipating the release of this one but we're sure to be left unsatisfied

such high expectation of this film only leaves room for disappointment