Kochi, Avijit, Shanti Das, Manik, Puja Mukerjee ...( see more  see more... ) , Gour , Suchitra , Tapasi , Mamuni

This film is a portrait of a group of unforgettable children in Calcutta's red light district. Feisty, resilient and wickedly funny, they are the children of prostitutes. Trying to evade a doomed futu...( read more  read more... )re, they embark on a transformational journey with New York-based photographer Zana Briski, who teaches them how to take pictures with cameras she provides. This humorous and heartfelt story portrays the power of art and the courage of those willing to change their own lives.

Flixster Users

92% liked it

10,275 ratings

Critics

96% liked it

103 critics

R, 2 hr. 29 min.

Directed by: Ross Kauffman, Zana Briski

Release Date: December 8, 2004

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DVD Release Date: September 20, 2005

Stats: 1,066 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,066)


  • December 6, 2009
    A story and a message that should be told as much as possible.

    My Mother tends to say, do whatever you want, but when a Hungry Human is standing infront of your Door no matter if he/she your foe, never send them away hungry. Feed them.
  • July 31, 2009
    We take so much for granted living here in the US. These children live in abject poverty.
  • January 17, 2009
    A hard watch but a story that needed to be told.
  • September 20, 2008
    Precious kids in a well-made and heart-wrenching documentary. I had problems with the depression factor. It was way gritty.
  • September 28, 2007
    very well done and very inspirational. highly recommended.
  • February 3, 2010
    a punto de llorar como 8 veces
  • January 19, 2010
    Interesting story. There is an unimaginable world in Indian slums, but a photographer changed the future of the Inidian kids. It shows the greatness of the Indian kids as well as photographing.
  • October 25, 2009
    Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman's harrowing documentary is alternatingly heartwrenching, inspiring and deeply disturbing. Zana Briski is an American photographer who went with collaborator Kauffman to film prostitution in Calcutta, India's red light district. What she discovered wa...( read more)s a far more unsettling subject for exploration: the exploitation of the children of sex workers. She met tons of bright, motivated, unsupported children who, in some cases desperately, wanted out of the slums and beatings and forced prostitution they were made to endure. She started teaching them her craft (photography) and gave them all cameras. Then Zana got an idea: what if she could possibly get the children out of their current living conditions simply by getting them into good schools? The all but inevitable obstacle: for one, children of sex workers have an undeserved stigma attached to them and they are automatically assumed to be inferior and, apparently, are not worthy of a proper education. Zana teaches and inspires the kids to reach for their dreams, and the photos they take are stunning - portraits of bleak, dire circumstances and horrid living conditions; in many cases, reflective of their own. Briski and Kauffman's documentary is fascinating and powerfully affecting, getting us involved in the efforts of these people to make these kids' lives vastly better. The results are tremendously angering and moving.

    NOTE: This, of course, won the 2005 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
  • September 26, 2009
    Highly recommended for anyone who wants to appreciate what they have and wants to recognzie what many people and children have to endure just to live life.....yet there remains hope.
  • August 21, 2009
    great about the hard choices of poverty...

Critic Reviews


March 3, 2005
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

It's one of the most inspiring finales I've seen in a long while. full review

February 24, 2005
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

Beautifully filmed, and devoid of the kind of patronizing beneficence that First Worlders often bring to the Third World. full review

February 11, 2005
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The movie is a record by well-meaning people who try to make a difference for the better, and succeed to a small degree while all around them the horror continues unaffected. full review

January 28, 2005
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

This is the kind of film that reminds you of what movies, at their best, are capable of. full review

December 9, 2004
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Zana Briski's documentary about children growing up in Calcutta's rough and squalid red light district is moving, charming and sad. full review

View more Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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