I love you Ajivit

The other night I saw Born into Brothels, the documentary that won the Academy Award. Basically, the entire movie is about this photographer who lives in the Red Light District in Calcutta and teaches the children of the brothels how to take pictures. The effects on the kids lives and her life is amazing. These kids were so wonderfully articulate and sensitive and talented that you wanted desperately for them to get out of the brothels. The movie wasn't successful because it displayed something you don't see everyday. It was successful because these kids were given a chance to do something that they would never had done otherwise. It was honest and didn't try to hide anything or disguise things. Things were laid out plainly.

I also really enjoy movies about kids when they're done well. The other one that immediately comes to mind is Spellbound which also cast the children as themselves and how they existed outside the eye of their parents, but also how they were effected by the pressure most clearly placed on them by parental expectations. Interestingly enough both documentaries were distributed by Think Film Company which seems to distribute a wide variety of films.

The 2 kids that were really very endearing by the end were Puja-the spunky girl and Ajivit-the boy that truly had an eye for art. I just hope that as they become adults they don't lose any of that spunk and talent.

Enough sappy comments, just go see the movie.