Review of Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids (2004) by Richard J — 09 Feb 2009

My film teacher once told me, "All film is propaganda in that it is edited together to show only one point of view". Well, I felt that this was a good point to make about Born into Brothels. while the film is focused around the children of "Red-light" prostitutes in Calcutta, the driving force of the movie appears to be Co-Director Zana Briski trying to bend the truth about the children's lives to make their lives more terrible or to make Briski herself a martyr.

Now, you won't find this argument in the film itself, but if you pay attention you can find points where you'll begin to question just how much of the film's accounts were accurate and which were the outcome of video editing.

Also, I thought this would focus on how the children live with how their parents make money or the ethical dilemmas of children growing up in the red light district. Instead, Briski turns her subjects into amateur photographers and spies on the parents at their worst behavior.

It's not a bad film, it's just that Briski tries too hard to be the "rich White woman" instead of focusing on the children and letting their voices be heard. If you want to see Calcutta through the eyes of a child, you're in luck here.