Archive for February, 2005

The only film nominated for an Oscar that I actually hoped would win indeed won for Best Documentary. If it’s playing in your area, please go see it! It’s one of the most moving films I’ve ever seen.

It’s about a photojournalist who goes into the red light distict in Calcutta to shoot photos of the lives of the prostitutes there and in so doing meets a group of curious wide-eyed kids. Giving them cameras and teaching them how to take pictures, she discovers what these children who’ve been virtually discarded by society are really capable of. So she decides to find schools that will take them and takes their photos and exhibits them to raise money to save them from a fate of crime and prostitution.

But I haven’t done it justice at all. The film is really about the kids. It lets them tell their own stories…through their own words, their own art, and their own experiences. It lets them tell us about their fears, their hopes, their aspirations. And that’s the magic of this documentary.

Check out Kids with Cameras, the organization launched by Zana Briski, who made this film, to realize her vision of uplifting marginalized children through art.