Jackson Booth-Millard I was always curious to see the documentary film that beat Super Size Me during Awards Season, I read more about this Indian-American film, and it did sound like something that could be either fascinating or uncomfortable and shocking viewing, either way I was interested to watch it. Basically it is about the children of prostitutes in Sonagachi, India's largest red light district, in Kolkata, aka Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal. Documentary photographer Zana Briski went to Calcutta to photograph the prostitutes, while there she befriended the children and offered to teach them photography. The children were given cameras, so they could learn photography and perhaps improve their lives, their photographs depicted the harsh daily lives for children in the red light district. The children's work was exhibited, with one boy sent to a photography conference in Amsterdam, and Briski also recorded their efforts to get into boarding schools. However, many did not stay in the schools they were placed in, for various reasons, with the exceptions of Avijit and Kochi, who went on with their education, and were graded well. It is obviously poignant, to see an underworld life in a child's eyes, especially for ones born into brothels, and especially their photographs depicting the streets and people around them. To be honest, I found the elderly woman using highly offensive language towards the children, to do their chores, more disturbing, the children are vibrant characters, they may be living in difficult situations, but they embark on transformational journeys, overall it is an interesting documentary. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Good!

nomak1980 I would have not seen this documentation, if it would not have been in IMDb Oscar Badge list. It would be a shame, because this documentation is worth to see. I'm not that good in English, please forgive me, but i try to write some words to appreciate their work. It is unbelievable how Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman are taking the challenge to work in such a place. Not only that, they are trying to make the world a little bit better for the children. Hopefully this documentation can make the world better for a lot more. It was a good decision from the Academy to give the Oscar to this Project. The more people see it, the more will think about the world around them.

MisterWhiplash You'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved a little by the kids and their circumstances in this story. Born into Brothels serves as sort of a basic litmus test for empathy: if you can't say to yourself 'that could've been me, in some other time or place or by some other stroke of chance or luck or what have you', then you shouldn't go near these movies (or perhaps movies in general). Its heart is squarely in the right place as one-time director Zana Briski (she didn't do anything before or since really, as filmmaking isn't exactly her forte so much as photography) goes into a part of Calcutta where brothels run rampant and there's no police - kids work from the age of whenever the parent (if there even is one) decides so, and school is usually a luxury or a privilege. If there's anything of an arc to the film it's following who may get into one school or another, or if one may get into a photo competition in Amsterdam.I may have skipped over the obvious of the premise - Calcutta kids get cameras and take pictures of their surroundings. Simple enough, and to be sure many of them take wonderful photographs that carry actual artistry and (as noted in the film) attention to composition. I was reminded following these kids a little of the film Hoop Dreams, which also is about kids growing up in poor neighborhoods and who may get the chance to move on with their lives by a combination of luck and hard work and tenacity (or if life doesn't get in the way, which it invariably does).Though it may have been impractical, I wished there was more to this movie than there is (or maybe, in some years time and it hasn't happened yet, the approach of the "Up" series where we see the kids 7/8 years later and so on). The directors take so much time to set up the kids, but it's not like they are very varied; where 'Dreams' had two young people, this has seemingly about 10 or maybe a dozen (I lost count to be honest). They're charming and easy enough to watch - my first thought once the documentary ended is that this is the lightest/fluffiest film about poverty-stricken youth I can remember seeing - but they're not distinctive enough to carry a movie that is so short. With more development or time to see their life stories, there might be something more as far as *narrative* goes.There are conflicts and tragedies, to be sure (one kid's mother is killed by her pimp, and it seems to be just another day in the red light district, again no justice either), and when the kids are seen in the midst of the aggressively-mouthed adults around them there's tension (there's a reason this is Rated-R so be warned if you decide to show this to your kids). But at the end of the day it really is more important as a social document than as a piece of cinema that you MUST see. It may help change how you see certain things with Calcutta - maybe some will come with the impression of the place as being only one way with one group of people, and here it's all about what options people have really, which is a good distinction the movie makes - and there's some nice/pretty photos to look at. Good but not great.

Michael Radny Whilst Born Into Brothels takes a very serious approach on a very serious issue, the repetitiveness of the documentary becomes tedious and unnecessary. You'll find the first twenty minutes of this documentary to be informative and interesting, but beyond that it becomes a little too preachy and sensitive to the problems at hand. However, with that being said, Born Into Brothels is bold and brave with it's hardcore and raw approach, with no stone left unturned and enough questions answered then unanswered.Watching this eleven years after being released, you can't help wondering what has happened to the children now, since most of them would be adults. The feeling afterwards is chilling and unpleasant, but for all the right reasons with this effective documentary.