BORN INTO BROTHELS: Calcutta's Red Light Kids

Admist the apparent growing prosperity of India, there is a dark underbelly of poverty of another side of the nation that is little known. This documentary film is a chronicle of filmmakers Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman's efforts to show that world of Calcutta's red light district. To do that, they inspired a special group of children of the prostitutes of the area to photograph the most reluctant subjects of it. As the kids excel in their new found art, the filmmakers struggle to help them have a chance for a better life away from the miserable poverty that threatens to crush their dreams.

Zana Briski (the director) studied documentary photography at International Center of Photography in New York. In 1995 she made her first trip to India, producing a story on female infanticide. In 1997 she returned to India and began her project on the prostitutes of Calcutta's red light district, which led to her work with the children of prostitutes. Zana has won numerous awards and fellowships including George Soros' Open Society Institute Fellowship, an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, the Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism and first prize at the World Press Photo Foundation Competition.

Zana and co-director Ross Kauffman were awarded grants from the Sundance institute, the Jerome Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts for their film, "Born into Brothels", a feature documentary about the children of Calcutta's prostitutes. In 2002 Zana created Kids with Cameras, a non-profit organization to empower marginalized children through learning the art of photography.

I liked the film not only because it brought out one of the burning issues, which despite being evident has been neglected for long by our government and society, but also for the positiveness of the film. When you see the film your touched by the condition of the people in the red street but watching the kids optimistically moving ahead so as to make a better life for themselves, makes you believe that nothing is impossible. One more thing that captures your eyes is the excellent photography by Zara and the kids, that makes one wonder if pictures could speak.The struggle they began here is just a start and a lot needs to be done but...paths are made by walking not waiting !