1. Truth from Kolkata’ Red Light Kids
Vocab words: documentary, documentary photography
Key names and images: Zana Briski, Partha Banerje, Ross Kauffman, Kids
with Cameras
By: Alison, Gabi, and Oriana

3. Lecture Overview
Background information
How the movie/photos promotes awareness of the situation in Kolkata
Vocab words
Initial motivation for making the documentary and controversy surrounding it
Negative criticism, including reviews
Positive criticism, and both sides of the story
Partha Banerjee, the interpreter and what he had to say about the
documentary
Truth discussion
Slide show of Photos

4. Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the
Indian state of West Bengal.

6. What is a documentary?
And what is documentary photography?

9. Reviews
Beth Accomando
KPBS.org
This bond of trust between the filmmakers and their subjects exemplifies the kind of personal
involvement that many documentary makers are striving for these days.
Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer
Beautifully filmed, and devoid of the kind of patronizing beneficence that First Worlders often
bring to the Third World.
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Heroism can come in subtle forms. This is one of them.
Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly
Born Into Brothels is designed to be 'inspirational,' yet it shortchanges the complex reality of the
lives it makes such a show of saving.
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine
Focuses too much on the production of images and not enough on documenting the world
contained within them.

10. Further Responses to the Film
Awards total: 8
• 2004 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature – Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman
• 2004 Bermuda International Film Festival Audience Choice Award - Briski, Kauffman;
Documentary Prize - Briski, Kauffman
• 2004 Cleveland International Film Festival Best Film - Briski, Kauffman
• 2004 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Audience Award - Briski, Kauffman (tied with Word
Wars)
• 2004 International Documentary Association Award for Feature Documentaries -
Briski, Kauffman & Geralyn Dreyfous-White, Pamela Boll (tied with Fahrenheit 9/11)
• 2004 National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary Feature – Briski and Kauffman
• 2004 Seattle International Film Festival Golden Space Needle Award for Best Documentary -
Briski, Kauffman
• 2004 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award, Documentary - Kauffman
Nominations total: 4
• 2005 Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in
Documentary - Briski, Kauffman
• 2005 Golden Satellite Award for Best Motion Picture, Documentary
• 2004 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film -
Kauffman, Briski
• 2004 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, Documentary - Kauffman, Briski