Born into Misery

How do these kids live day to day? Everytime I see and hear about the lives of the children living in brothels, my hear breaks. Born into Brothels, is a 2004 documentary about the lives of children growing up in the red light district of Calcutta, India. This movie covers their lives and relations to each other as well as their immediate familes. Zana Briski, a New York photgrapher and her co-hort Ross Kauffman, went out to Calcutta to film and discover the world in which these children live in.

Briski, who appears occasionaly in the feature film, has the idea of giving the children cameras to photograph the world around them. Part of Briski's idea stemmed from the difficulty in getting cameras into the red light district, and more importantly, the brothels themselves. By giving the children cameras, they were able to capture extraordinary pictures from life in a brothel. However, much of the credit is due to the children themselves who have a innate ability to take captivating photography. Much of the children's work was displayed at a art gallery in Amsterdam as the main exhibition for the public. Other sites that the children's work was displayed was in India as well as New York.

Although the children are natural and talented photographers, credit is also due to the filmmakers themselves as they have created a stunning masterpiece of art and the enduring human spirit. Not only did they capture the essence of the red light district, the filmmakers also displayed an extraordinary amount of courage to even make the film in the first place. Their ability to artfully paint a picture of the horrors of Calcutta speaks well of their talents. Kauffman and Briski rightfully deserve the Academy Award they recieved for their epic film.

Watching the documentary surprised me somewhat in a way that I was not expecting. My prejudice before the film was to see a documentary that was depressing and hopeless. Although the facts of the atrocities that occur there are unthinkable, the filmmakers made this pill somewhat easy to swallow. I believe that it is too easy for Americans to dismiss the evils of the world and try and live a rich and carefree life. What made this film stand out was its ability to connect with viewers who may have such a mindset. I don't say these things to demoralize or dismiss all Americans, but the film created a relatability with the characters on screen. Almost a human brotherhood, if you will. At the end of the feature, I left feeling somewhat hopeful that there can be positive change even in the darkest of enviroments. And while something such as this cannot be easy to accept, we must allow ourselves to be challenged by this reality, and even better, do something about it.