Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids
United States
2004
85 Min
Color
1.85:1
English, Bengali
Synopsis
In this gripping and gritty Academy-Award winning documentary, photojournalists/ documentarians Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman chronicle their journey into the seedy Red Light District of Calcutta, India. Briski and Kauffman come to develop a special attachment to the District’s children; Briski even decides to train the children in photography and equips them with cameras to photograph their experiences growing-up in the brothels. Finding empowerment behind the lens, the children emerge from the margins and into public awareness, though not without also igniting debates over the politics of representation and ethics of Western intervention. Briski and Kauffman received the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary feature, as well as the 2004 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award. –UCI
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roger o. thornhill
23Dec12
a fantastic documentary that chronicles the lives of several indian girls, and how their lives change, or don't change after they learn about the art of photography. very engrossing.
saptarshi
19Feb12
If anyone cares, here's a good video relevant to this movie dissecting the “child-in-peril-in-the-third-world" narrative, or what Kathryn Bond Stockton calls “kid Orientalism,” involving sexualized children in a racialized world, i.e. in a realm of extreme third world (so-called) poverty - http://www.cornell.edu/video/?videoID=1740
Juanita Rodriguez Onzaga
9Dec11
This documentary thrilled me, then I read how the kids are doing nowadays and Avijit is even studying filmmaking at the U.S.! There is where you find out how powerful a film can be
saptarshi
19Aug10
I've heard controversial things about how exploitive zana briski was while filming this. The wikipedia entry is pretty revelatory. There are also some imdb threads that discuss the faux emancipatory content which are interesting.
mannequinlegs and nurrrit like this
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Western culture wake-up call.
By LifeofFiction on December 9, 2011
Born Into Brothels is a documentary from 2004, and it was directed by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman. In 2004, it was nominated and won an Oscar for best documentary. It follows the two documentarians… read review
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By Elston on June 20, 2010
Cue the hymnal oppressed woman’s voice, we’re gonna make something spiritual outta something ugly! Let’s see, a British colonialist brings her Western morality and privilege into the Red Light Distract… read review
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