Desperate and cynical as I am, I really want the virtual badge for rating all the Oscar Winners from 2005, but I didn't want to cheat. I wanted to actually watch the films and write a proper review, not just chuck on a random score. So, having hoped for it to appear on TV somewhere, so I wouldn't have to pay, I eventually relented at rented the film on Amazon Prime.
The documentary is not the traditional dispassionate look at the plight of these children. Instead the filmmakers (Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman) actively try to enrich the lives of these children by holding classes in photography and handing out camera's to let them capture their world. This evolves to actively finding the kids schooling and traversing the complex Indian administrative system. Only to then have so much of their progress undone by, amongst other aspects, the children's parents.
The documentary (if that even is a fair title, given how involved the producers are) is both uplifting and disheartening. It's thrilling to see these kids show an active interest in photography and to borrow camera's and capture some truly impressive and award winning images. You then see the amount of work that Zana has to do to get the kids enrolled at schools that traditionally wouldn't accept them, as they are children of prostitutes. She then gets the places only to have the children either not attend, or their parents withdraw them. All this takes place in such a place of unbelievable poverty that is scarcely believable that it's the 20th century there and what's truly depressing is how resigned to their fates some of the children are.
That said, it feels like "fiddling whilst Rome burns" to spend your time teaching these kids photography whilst they live in such squalid conditions. It's seems like, if you're actively trying to help, securing money to move families away, or establishing your own school, would be more useful (not that I don't appreciate that individual expression via art is a valid aspect of life).
The documentary is not the traditional dispassionate look at the plight of these children. Instead the filmmakers (Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman) actively try to enrich the lives of these children by holding classes in photography and handing out camera's to let them capture their world. This evolves to actively finding the kids schooling and traversing the complex Indian administrative system. Only to then have so much of their progress undone by, amongst other aspects, the children's parents.
The documentary (if that even is a fair title, given how involved the producers are) is both uplifting and disheartening. It's thrilling to see these kids show an active interest in photography and to borrow camera's and capture some truly impressive and award winning images. You then see the amount of work that Zana has to do to get the kids enrolled at schools that traditionally wouldn't accept them, as they are children of prostitutes. She then gets the places only to have the children either not attend, or their parents withdraw them. All this takes place in such a place of unbelievable poverty that is scarcely believable that it's the 20th century there and what's truly depressing is how resigned to their fates some of the children are.
That said, it feels like "fiddling whilst Rome burns" to spend your time teaching these kids photography whilst they live in such squalid conditions. It's seems like, if you're actively trying to help, securing money to move families away, or establishing your own school, would be more useful (not that I don't appreciate that individual expression via art is a valid aspect of life).