Born Into Brothels - Kids Behind the Lens
Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski's Documentary About Calcutta's Kids
Oct 14, 2009
Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski collaborated to create a film about the red-light district in Calcutta. But as Zana returned to India, she became interested in the plight of the children of the sex workers. Finally, because the children were so enamored of her cameras, she brought ten point-and-shoot cameras and gave them to the children. In order to gain access to everything she wanted to film, she lived with the children and their famllies for years, learning about their lives and the struggles each faced. This documentary is the result of that relationship and its subsequent effects on the children and their families.
Filmmaker Briski's Childs-Eye View of Brothels in Calcutta
Busy street scenes in Calcutta are juxtaposed amid interviews with individual children. Bengali, the language of the children and their families, is intermixed with English, the language of New York-based documentary filmmaker Zana Briski. Black and white still photos of amazing intensity are seen between colorful video footage of Calcutta. And the innocence of very young children is witnessed against a backdrop of foul language, beatings, alcoholism, and constant fighting. "The men who enter our building are not so good," one young girl tells us. And at 10 years of age, one child is already being asked when she will join the line (of prostitutes). A tiny toddler is seen chained by the ankle, lest he wander off while his mother is busy entertaining her customer. Other children are busy running errands, cleaning and doing the bidding of adults in a system where everyone struggles to survive. The children are spared nothing of life, nor is the viewer during the course of this starkly honest film.
Born Into Brothels and Dying to Get Out: A Documentary Lights the Way
As Ms. Briski learns the stories of the individual children, she becomes concerned with their future if they remain on their current path. Avijit, Shanti,Suchitra, Manik, Gour, and Kochi are some of the children of the brothels. One is extremely talented, one is severely disturbed, one seems headed for a life of nothing but trouble. Most schools will have nothing to do with these children; they are already consigned to the hopeless category. But filmmakers Briski and Kauffman know there is power in their art and they use it to seduce the children into attending school and to bring the viewer into the lives the of the children. The film follows the children through a few years journey on the streets of Calcutta, down the dark alley which is their home. An amazing resilience is witness in some children, and a tragic resignation is seen in others. But the message of the film is about the trials of being a human being in difficult circumstances, of being young in a dark environmment, and of being transformed by the power of art when opportunity is seized . A hauntingly beautiful and colorful film.
- 83 minutes
- R-Rated
- THINKFilm
Release date: August 16, 2005
- 77th Academy Awards, Winner, Best Documentary
- 2005 IFP Independent Spirit Award
- DirectTV IFC Truer than Fiction Award
- 2004 IA Film Critics Winner, Best Documentary
- 2004 National Board of Review, Winner, Best Documentary
- 2004 International Documentary Association, Distinguished Documentary Award
- 2004 Human Rights Watch, Nestor Almendros Prize for Courage in Filmmaking
- 2004 Sundance Film Festival, Audience Award
- 2004 Full Frame Documentary, Audience Award
- 2004 Atlanta Film Festival, Audience Award
- 2004 Nashville Film Festival, Best Documentary, Audience Award
- 2004 Cleveland Film Festival, Audience Award
- 2004 Amnesty International, Audience Award
- 2004 Bermuda Film Festival, Best Documentary, Audience Award
- 2004 Dorago Film Festival, Best Documentary, Filmmaker Award, Audience Award
- 2004 Newport Beach Film Festival, Special Merit Award
- 2004 Artivist Film Festival, Children's Day Award
- 2004 Sydney International Film Festival, Audience Award
- 2004 Bendfilm, Audience Award, Best Score
- 2004 High Falls Film Festival, Audience Award
- 2005 Portland Film Festival, Best Documentary
- 2005 Ashland International Film Festival, Best Documentary
- Planet Doc Review, Warsaw, Audience Award
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