Bronwen and I liked this look at this film by and in part about Zana Briski as she worked with the children of prostitutes, alcoholics, addicts, etc in Calcutta’s red light district. She taught a group of them photography and then used their photos (many of them very good and very beautiful) to help get them placed in boarding schools and help them escape ‘the life’. Very interesting on the families, the kids, the bureaucracy. This won the Oscar for Best Documentary 2004. Weirdly, I found it less emotionally affecting than I’d anticipated (and even desired), perhaps because it’s presented in such a matter-of-fact unemotional way. I think that comes from the fact that the focus is the kids, their situation, and the project around photography, and Briski is simply there as a facilitator. She doesn’t attempt to disappear, but neither is she the ‘star’. And that makes it harder to connect with emotional passion. Still, it’s a really remarkable film about the kids and a western woman who has devoted her time/life to their interests