Born into Brothels

The 26 Year Old was laid low with a cold, so we decided to stay in and rent a video. This being the Far West Village, there are no video stores, so we were stuck with the DVD Express kiosk at D'Agostinos.

The pickings there are usually pretty slim, but somehow we stumbled across Born into Brothels, the 2005 Academy Award winner for Best Documentary.

The film documents the friendship of the children of prostitutes in one of Calcutta's red light districts with a photography teacher named Zana Briski. She gives the children cameras and teaches them the basics of photography. Being children, they respond with excitement and glee. In one case, a genuine artist is revealed.

All of this happens against a backdrop of social pathologies that are gut-wrenching. The children describe their situations in a kind of frightening poetic language. For the girls, all of whom are at the age where prostitution is maybe a year or less away, the sense of impending doom is pervasive.

Briski sets out to place the children in charity boarding schools, but almost all of them refuse to admit the children of criminals. Her efforts on their behalf are matter of fact and never presented with cheap sentimentality or self-righteousness. And getting them placed at schools is just half the battle; the families don't always share Briski's vision of a future with education.

For me, the most difficult case to watch was a young boy named Avijit. The photographs the children take are interesting and some of them are quite good. When we meet Avijit, however, it is immediately apparent that he is exceptional. The boy has real talent. He speaks directly and movingly of his desire to express what he feels inside through art. His photographs are on a different level than those of the other kids, hell, even his commentaries on the other kids' photos are on a different level.

At the same time, he is very clearly conflicted. His talent earns him the chance for a way out of the brothels, but he struggles with a desire to be loyal to his family and their world. Watching him cope with his general situation and his conflicted emotions about escaping is extraordinarily difficult. His plight makes you wonder how much other talent is lost in poverty and violence.

Go rent it or check out the children's photographs here.