Documentaries, at their best, can take us into another world. Consider one of the most highly regarded non-fiction films of last year, “Born Into Brothels,” which plunges us into the daily lives of a group of children, ages 11-14, whose mothers work as prostitutes in Calcutta’s red light district.
One can understand the movie’s numerous accolades. It’s beautifully photographed and, thanks to its subject matter, sometimes intensely moving. Watching these lively children and their tawdry surroundings–and seeing the hectic, dangerous lives led by their mothers (at the mercy of pimps and customers)–one’s heart goes out to them. Since “Born Into Brothels” is about possible redemption, you’re also inclined to root for them, to hope that their possible benefactors, the filmmakers, can succeed in lifting them from this squalor.
Education is the obvious instrument of escape. But “Born Into Brothels” also explores a personal project of New York photojournalist Zana Briski, who co-directed, co-produced, and co-shot the film with Ross Kauffman (and is also one of its on-camera stars). Briski met the mothers while researching a project on the brothels and came to feel that the children might be energized or saved by giving them cameras and teaching them to shoot their surroundings.
Shoot they did, with inspiring results. One of them, Avijit, is a chunky little photographic natural. At only 12, he’s won awards for his paintings and his often-remarkable photographs. (The group pins most of their hopes on him.) But the others–including energetic Suchitra, 14, gutsy Manik, 10 and shy Kochi, also 10–achieve amazing results as well. The opportunity to create images of their world seems to galvanize them all.
Their world, however, remains a constant peril to their well-being and future. Saddest of all perhaps is the fact that to escape it and enter one of the area’s schools, they are forced to all but abandon their parents. “Born Into Brothels” is not judgmental about the mothers and their lot, but it does raise constant moral questions about how Indian society (and by extension, others) handles this problem–and, especially, these children.
Fitting her gifts as a photographer, Briski has made a stunning-looking picture, even though her medium here is high-definition video rather than film. Yet “Born Into Brothels,” winner of dozens of international festival prizes (including the Chicago Film Festival’s documentary grand prize), is, I think, overrated. One senses that Briski and Kaufman have answered all their questions in advance and, by focusing on the children, invite comparison with classics like “Bicycle Thief” or “Pixote,” which dig much deeper. Sometimes “Born” seems to grab for too-easy sympathy.
On the other hand, these children do deserve our sympathy. This film carries us so touchingly into their world, it would take a heart of stone, finally, to ignore them–or to look away from the sometimes dazzling and always meaningful images they create.
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`Born Into Brothels’ (star)(star)(star) Directed, photographed and produced by Ross Kauffman, Zana Briski; edited by Nancy Baker, Kauffman; music by John McDowell. A THINKFilm release, in association with HBO/Cinemax; opens Friday at Landmark Century Centre. In Bengali and English, with English subtitles. Running time: 1:25. MPAA rating: R (some sequences of strong language).
