Born Into Brothels

Last years Oscar winner for best documentary is the heartbreaking account of a group of children raised in the brothels of Calcutta's red light district. As children, they are wide-eyed, imaginative, joyful, and strangely down to earth. Many of them fear they will end up as prostitutes like their parents. Zana Briskie, a photojournalist from New York, somehow finds her way into this godforsaken place, but everyone is suspicious and afraid of the cameras. She decides to live there for a few years to get to know the people and teach the children photography. She gives them each a camera, they take pictures and evaluate them. Suddenly, the power of artistc creation has inspired some of them. We follow the children and Briskie through their day to day life. The film avoids being exploitive (as some documentaries can be), it also manages to truthful, realistic, and inspirational, without being either sentimental or cynical. She helps to get some of them into boarding school and does everything in her power to give the children a chance to escape. With some, she succeeds, but the point is that its going to take more than one compassionate photojournalist with a few camera's to change the endless cycle of poverty and prostitution in Calcutta. This is one of the year's best and most moving films.