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Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary Feature, winner of the Audience Award
at Sundance and a hit at last fall’s Mill Valley
Film Festival, this remarkable documentary about the children of Calcutta’s
red-light district follows photojournalist Zana Briski’s efforts
to transform their lives by teaching them photography. Realizing that boarding
school is the kids’ best hope to escape tough and degrading lives, Briski devises
ways for their photographs to fund their education. Born into Brothels traces
the heroic journey of several boys and girls, from Avijit, whose art ultimately
takes him to an international photo competition, and Suchitra,
a tall beauty who has reached the dangerous age of 14, when many girls “join
the line.” Despite the looming shadow of long odds and narrow choices, it’s
an inspiring story filled with hope and ebullience, and this beautifully wrought
film finds some of its most arresting images in the photographs created by the
children themselves. Music: John McDowell. Editors: Nancy Baker, Ross
Kauffman. Camera/Producers/Directors: Ross Kauffman, Zana Briski. (US
2004) 85 min.
"Photographer and filmmaker Zana Briski “is not just documenting
these unfortunate children, but letting them document, and therefore consider,
their own circumstances as she introduces the possibility of escape.”
Read the full story by Carla Meyer, SF
Chronicle here.
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