born into brothels

This past weekend, I got a chance to go downtown with Alicia to the E Street Cinema to see Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids, which won an Oscar for Best Documentary this year. The documentary's filmmakers follow children who are growing up in the squalor of Calcutta's red light district. One of the filmmakers, Zana Briski, gave some of the children cameras and taught them about photography while trying to get the students enrolled into boarding schools away from the brothels. The film was eye-opening for sure, but also frustrating and depressing at the same time. Frustrating and depressing in the sense that these children in the brothels have so much potential, but they seem so trapped in a setting (the brothel, the slum, the parents, the bureaucracy, the rest of society) that applies constant pressure to quash them and their hopes. I have to give credit for the filmmakers not only for a job well done, but for being able to endure the setting and being able to make a difference in the kids' lives. Excellent filmmaking that is well worth a watch. Check it out if you get a chance.

Opening soon at the E Street Cinema:
15 April - Voices in Wartime
29 April - Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room