MOVIE REVIEW 'Brothels' reveals sleaze, spirit

The film depicts the hardships on children in the red-light district, but aims to lift them out of it.
By SCOTT MERVIS
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
There was much to be debunked and debated in last year's two breakout documentaries, Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" and Morgan Spurlock's "Super Size Me."
The same can't be said for the more sobering "Born Into Brothels," which just won the best-documentary Oscar (thanks to Moore, who put his People's Choice Award-winner up against the heavies for best picture, but it wasn't even nominated).
"Born into Brothels," despite the provocative title, is a revealing and well-meaning documentary that doesn't get its R rating for sexual situations. Rather, "Brothels" goes about its non-exploitative way not only depicting the hardships on the children of Calcutta's red-light district, but aiming to lift them out of it.
First-time filmmaker Zana Briski entered the dangerous and hard-to-access subculture in 1998 to photograph prostitutes. Having befriended some of the children who exist among the sleaze and squalor, she returned, along with 20 point-and-shoot cameras, to offer them photography lessons and document the results.
'Accept life as being sad'
The children have moms who are prostitutes -- all very hardened, from what we can see -- and fathers who are drug addicts, if they're lucky enough to have fathers present at all. Most of the girls are expected to be placed "in the line," alongside the mothers, as soon as they come of age -- around 14.
As one child says matter-of-factly, "One has to accept life as being sad and painful ... that's all."
Briski and co-director Ross Kauffman show us sad and painful interviews with the children and footage of the mothers abusing and neglecting them. There's one unforgettable image of a half-naked toddler whose ankle is chained to a pole.
But "Born Into Brothels" is a testament to how resilient children can be. Despite the degradation all around them, these children aren't broken and, in fact, blossom once they have a creative purpose and a benefactor like Briski, whom they called "Zana Auntie."
Talent
The viewer can't help but bond with Avijit, a 12-year-old boy who tells us, "There is nothing called hope in my future." Avijit has a sweet smile, slightly mischievous nature and an artistic eye far beyond his years. He also has a prostitute mother who is burned to death by her pimp and a once-vibrant father who's curled up all day with a hash pipe. "I try to love him a little," Avijit said.
To say he's at risk is an understatement, but through his talent for capturing motion and busy street scenes, he is invited to Amsterdam, Netherlands, to participate in the 2002 Children's Jury by the World Press Photo Foundation.
We watch Briski battle bureaucracies to get him there and place other children in boarding schools. She also organizes a benefit auction of their photographs at Sotheby's -- anything to get them out of the red-light district.
It isn't the trip to the theater that those other documentaries were -- it has more of a PBS feel -- but it's a noble battle and a noble film that is uplifting in unexpected ways.