Born Into Brothels

This was the kind of movie where it's so easy to take for granted the difficulty in telling a story like this. This women spent 2 years on and off living in the red light district of Calcutta, getting to know and forming a deep relationship and emotional connection with these children. It's looks like they just filmed that and put it up on the screen. But it was, of course, more than that. This one was sort of a variation of the observational documentary, but not quite. It's similar in that it's mostly just watching these kids do their thing, but it also has elements of other ways storytelling. Some voice over, some stills, some "pop" music.

What I found interesting was that the fear in making something like this is to not exploit the kids of their situation. You want to call attention to the problem and the issue of the film, but without using the kids to advance that. That's a thin line sometimes. So, of course Zana Auntie couldn't just sit there and observe these kids and stick a video camera in their face. She had to take action and try to better their lives. And that's where the story came from.

In that was, it was as though the filmmaker has to be in it. If she was going to help them, she had to be an active part of the story as well. We had to see the relationship she was forming with these kids. She had to be helping them. But you still get the sense that she IS the filmmaker, even though you know she's not holding the camera.

This movie is much more uplifting than what I expected. I think I went into it thinking that the kids were the sex workers. That's why I've avoided it so long. This is only partially true. Of course they do sort of show some child and teenage sex workers, it's all about the children OF the adult sex workers and them attempting to overcome this fate. Doesn't have a Hollywood ending by any means (it's real life after all) but not a complete and utter downer either.