Born Into Brothels

One of the nice things about being done with school is that I now have a chance to catch up on a number of things that I have been putting off while working on papers. Last week I finally had a chance to see the film documentary Born into Brothels. It is a great film and if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it.

Born into Brothels, by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski, is the winner of the 77th annual Academy Award 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. 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 photos that the kids took are fantastic, you can view some of their work here. Also, Briski and others have formed an organization, Kids With Cameras that continues the work of the film with other children in other cities.