Zana Briski's channel

Announced by actor Leonardo Di Caprio, Zana Briski and Ross Kauffmann are awarded the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the film “Born into Brothels”.

Zana spent ten years on her project in the brothels of Calcutta where she lived, photographed, filmed and taught photography to the children of prostitutes. Her resulting film “Born into Brothels” won the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, an Emmy and 33 other awards.

“Born into Brothels” is a film and tribute to the resiliency of childhood and the restorative power of art. A portrait of several unforgettable children who live in the red-light district of Calcutta, where their mothers work as prostitutes. In the face of abject poverty, abuse and despair, these kids have little possibility of escaping their mother’s fate or for creating another type of life. Briski and Kauffman chronicle the amazing transformation of the children they come to know in this red light district. Briski gave them lessons and cameras, igniting latent sparks of artistic genius. The children’s photographs are not merely examples of remarkable observation and talent; they reflect something much larger, morally encouraging and even politically volatile: art as an immensely liberating and empowering force. [Source IDA]

Photographic artist Zana Briski gives each of the children a camera and teaches them to look at the world with new eyes.