Review Of The Film Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids

Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman’s, documentary, Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids, released in 2004 (IMBD), focuses on the struggling lives of 9 children living in Calcutta’s “Red Light District.” Born into Brothels applies ethnography to describe the life of many families in the Red Light District. These children’s lives are endangered by many diseases, lack of proper nourishment and lack of adult supervision. The film shows different cultural traditions of joining the “The Line” in Calcutta's Red Light District. Briski, the director and photographer, originally went to the Red Light District to photograph the woman’s life style in the district and observed the way they lived in those living situations. Eventually she became attached

The director gave then hands on tasks and taught them the basics of photography. Viewers follow Zana Briski as she strives to get the children into a great school programs and give one of the children, Avijit Halder, an opportunity to travel to Amsterdam, to a photography conference and explore the medium of photography. Eventually it is discovered that although all the children were accepted into the school program not all were able to commit, while Avijit was able to travel to Amsterdam and learn more about artistry and be recognized by his art. The purpose of the film is to inform the viewers of the dangers in Culcutta’s Red Light District. Zana Briski wanted the viewers to have a firsthand look at what it is like for the ninechildren to have large hopes and dreams but have those dreams crushed because society and culture holds them back. With raw footage, specific angles, photographic perspectives, sounds , symbolism and themes, Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman's ethnographic documentary Born Into Brothels is successful at evoking a sense of sympathy and interest from the viewer about the lives of children and the great dangers faced in the Red Light

The film was evidently shot with shoulder camera due to the unsteadiness of the shots. This method allows to viewer to feel as if they were in the Red Light District having first hand experiences of what it would be like to live in that area. This type of filming can be seen as the camera travels through the streets and homes of the Red Light District (Figure 1). To add to the realistic filming, the directors use natural lighting with hardly any editing of outside noises such as vehicles, and other people’s voices. There is no adjustment of color and sharpening of images and the film possesses a grainy style. Pramaggiore and Wallis note in the text “Film: A critical Introduction” that if a film is grainy, that the stock contains grains which are small suspended particles of silver in the films emulsion. (453) Theses methods serve well because they present an accurate depiction of everyday life in the red light district through clear and uncut