I was really looking forward to seeing Born Into Brothels. However, after seeing it, I must say that I was disappointed. It's a good movie, but in my opinion certainly not worthy of the "Best Documentary" Oscar (that, I think, should have gone to Tupac Resurrection and I think the Best Picture Oscar should have gone to Hotel Rwanda which wasn't even nominated!) Documentaries, in my opinion, need to capture their audience in the first couple of minutes. They should be like essays, with an opening statement showing what is going to be presented afterward and why. Born Into Brothels doesn't do this. It begins as a messy composition of the comments of several children. The story itself is quite good. But the cinematography is my main complaint. The camera is always either in close up or closer up. It zooms in on the children's faces so that only 2/3 of the face is seen. In street scenes, the camera is jumping all over the place or speeding down the road in a total blur. I never got to really see or understand the environment that these children live in. The sole exception was the beginning of the beach scene. Overall, I found the movie a narcissistic glorification of Zana Briski who attempted to "save" some of these children from their horrible fate. But I never got to really know the children and what they REALLY thought and felt and experienced and I think that's what Zana Briski missed when she set off on her mission. Perhaps that's why the majority of the children don't end up "saved". One of the child photographers who ends up going to a fine school in India at one point in the movie comments about how wonderfully a photo captured feeling. I only wish he were in charge of making the film.
