Summary

A tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art, "Born into Brothels" is a portrait of several unforgettable children who live in the red light district of Calcutta where their mothers are prostitutes. Zana Briski, a New York-based photojournalist who travelled to India to document the lives of women in the brothels, gives these youngsters cameras and teaches them how to take pictures, leading them to look at their world with new eyes. Together with co-director Ross Kauffman, Briski captures the magical way in which beauty can be found in the most unlikely of places and how a promising future becomes a possibility for children who previously had no future at all. Touching and heartfelt, yet devoid of sentimentality, "Born into Brothels" defies the tear-stained tourist snapshot of the global underbelly. Zana Briski spent years with these children and became a part of their lives. Their photographs are prisms into their souls, rather than anthropological curiosities, and a true testimony to the power of the indelible creative spirit. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and over twenty other major film festival prizes.