Born into Brothels (2004)

Born into Brothels is the story of a group of young children, from 10-14, who were born and raised in the brothels of Calcutta, India. Zana Briski is a photographer and, upon seeing the children's interest in her cameras, decides to show the children how to shoot photographs. They slowly learn the craft, and Briski decides to help them rise above their surroundings in hopes that they'll get into a boarding school and get a good education.

It's pretty hard to judge most documentaries, so I can't pick it apart much. But I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed Brothels. In many ways, it's far more intimate than most documentaries out there. It focuses almost entirely on the children, never diverging to show much of their surrounding city. It would be easy to, but entirely unnecessary and uncalled for, which I think does well to speak for the filmmakers' intent. There's one brief moment, in reviewing one boy's photos, when Briski comments on a portrait of a boy, standing in the slums. She notes that the boy is in focus, front and center, but you can still see his surroundings behind him. And this could do well to sum up the documentary; it's a portrait of these children, and focuses on them exclusively, but it effortlessly shows their surroundings as well.

There are a couple of moments when the childrens' boundless enthusiasm is infectious. One scene in particular, where they're watching a video from an art gallery in the US with their photos on display. The children are practically bouncing with joy, and it warms your heart to see.

The only problem I had with the documentary is that it felt fairly lopsided. It did a lot to portray their parents as selfish, abusive, uncaring slobs, while Briski is shown to be completely single-minded in her quest to help these children. I don't know the story, so it may be exactly as portrayed in the film. But, I have my doubts, which took away from the documentary a little bit for me. But, overall, it was a well-made, moving documentary.