Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski’s terrific documentary won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature
A tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art, Born into Brothels is a portrait of several unforgettable children who live in the red light district of Calcutta, where their mothers work as prostitutes.
The most stigmatised people in Calcutta’s red light district are not the prostitutes, but their children, who live in very difficult circumstances, facing poverty, social condemnation, and often abuse. Zana Briski, a New York-based photographer, gives each of the children a camera and teaches them to look at the world with new eyes.
The photographs taken by the children are not merely examples of remarkable observation and talent, but reflect something much larger: art as a immensely liberating and empowering force.
Devoid of sentimentality, Born into Brothels is a clear-eyed and profoundly intimate study of a community of children (co-director Briski spent years with them and became part of their lives) whose photographs are a true testimony of the power of the creative spirit.
