Born into Brothels beat out the superior Super Size Me for best documentary because it is “important.” The film is “important” because it is about CHILDREN who are living in POVERTY because their mothers are PROSTITUTES. It may be important, but it’s never really interesting.

The documentary follows Zana Briski, who spends time in a Calcutta brothel teaching the children photography. The film spends the majority of its time introducing us to the kids and showing us the world they live in through their own photographs. Then, later in the film, Zana struggles to get the kids into a local school district.

But other than saying “look at these kids who actually live in a brothel, exclamation point,” it tells us nothing we care to know. It is indeed disheartening to see children living in such conditions. But give me a camera and I can go film some kids I know who live in even worse conditions than these.

Born into Brothels could have explored any number of serious issues relating to these children, but it fails to tell us anything beyond its title.

Documentary

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