Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
64 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Born Into Brothels

EMAILPRINTThinkFilm Inc.

Born Into Brothels reviews
78
8.9 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 20 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary

Written by: Zana Briski
Ross Kauffman

Directed by: Zana Briski
Ross Kauffman

Release Date:
Theatrical: December 8, 2004
DVD: September 20, 2005

Running Time: 85 minutes, Color

Origin: India / USA

Language(s): English / Bengali (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

This documentary is an inspiring look at the transformative journey of a group of extraordinary children in Calcutta's red light district. (ThinkFilm)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Boston Globe Ty Burr

This is the kind of film that reminds you of what movies, at their best, are capable of.

Read Full Review >
100

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Compelling.

Read Full Review >
100

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

A superb and piercing documentary.

Read Full Review >
100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The title captures this film's harrowing qualities, but not its energy, its limpid beauty or its spiritual grace.

Read Full Review >
90

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Creates such memorable images out of squalid surroundings that I sometimes wondered whether I was being distracted from the devastating stories of these kids by the beautiful cinematography.

Read Full Review >
89

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

A devastating portrait of impoverished Calucutta children.

Read Full Review >
88

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

But as cynical as I may have been going in, I came out a believer.

Read Full Review >
88

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is a record by well-meaning people who try to make a difference for the better, and succeed to a small degree while all around them the horror continues unaffected.

Read Full Review >
88

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

It shows how the energy, and innocence, of children can be found - and fostered - in even the bleakest spots on earth.

Read Full Review >
83

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

The results are inspiring, demonstrating that an artistic eye is an innate thing.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Doesn't just bring you to the edge of the hopeless zone, it takes you right into its homes where the children play.

Read Full Review >
80

Time Richard Schickel

Very moving film.

Read Full Review >
80

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Born Into Brothels will break your heart, then warm it up and leave you with that 7-Up longing to know what happens next to Zana's kids.

Read Full Review >
80

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Seven years in the making, it demands to be experienced not just because of the good it does but because of how unexpectedly good, even buoyant, it makes you feel.

Read Full Review >
80

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Why, then, should we be eager to see a story of such incomplete inspiration? Because it's thrilling, and stirring. And because it is truth.

80

The Hollywood Reporter James Greenberg

This is a work of art so deep and resonant that it puts most narrative films to shame.

Read Full Review >
80

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The resulting film is moving, charming and sad, a tribute to Ms. Briski's indomitability and to the irrepressible creative spirits of the children themselves.

Read Full Review >
75

USA Today Mike Clark

As inspiring as the story wants to be, its real drama is mired around the edges, where we get a sense of what it is really like to be born into a brothel.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Briski, a New York photographer, spent several years with the pre-teens. But she did more than just film them -- she tried to help them.

Read Full Review >
75

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

A stirring documentary, and would be more so if it focused more on social problems than on Briski's own work.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

This film carries us so touchingly into their world, it would take a heart of stone, finally, to ignore them.

Read Full Review >
75

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Rather than another oppressive film about poverty, it's a revealing experiment in perspective.

Read Full Review >
75

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Often, the movie leaves you wishing Briski had found a way to document more of her subjects' day-to-day lives.

Read Full Review >
70

TV Guide Ken Fox

In a rare and inspiring example of the way art can both reflect and alleviate human suffering, photojournalist Zana Briski's wrenching documentary traces her valiant use of photography to help children trapped in one of the most wretched places on earth.

Read Full Review >
70

Chicago Reader Richard M. Porton

The children are not exactly reporters -- they bring back no shattering images of sexual servitude -- but their photography, like much children's art, is fresh and sometimes startling.

Read Full Review >
70

Film Threat Brad Slager

The brightest facet of the movie is that even as they face oppressive conditions they still persist with joy.

Read Full Review >
70

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Favors unforgettable images over in-depth storytelling, and prioritizing electrifying moments over narrative arcs.

Read Full Review >
70

Variety Todd McCarthy

Even if the film itself is relatively conventional, its exposure of a squalid city's most benighted neighborhood and its introduction of hope into nearly hopeless lives give it strong human interest value.

Read Full Review >
70

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Almost inevitably for a documentary of this stripe, it risks aestheticizing poverty--but here it's usually the kids themselves who compose the most arresting images.

Read Full Review >
63

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Touching and saddening.

Read Full Review >
60

Empire Helen O'Hara

Some gorgeous imagery – mostly in pictures taken by the kids – and heartbreaking stories, but the directors' appearances sometimes feel self-indulgent.

Read Full Review >
50

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Designed to be "inspirational," yet it shortchanges the complex reality of the lives it makes such a show of saving.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Dee gave it a10:
Its one of the best documentaries that not only touch your heart, but lite you up to bring your potential to something for the people. Its an eye-opener, I had never thought about those kids before! Now I am ready to adopt one of them.

Frank O. gave it a9:
Well constructed, did not want to care about this subject but director pulled me in through introduction of kids.

tom s. gave it a9:
Moving and extraordinary.

Paul F. gave it a9:
Great documentary, a little slow though with an aburt ending. The children were magnificent, playful and full of life. My favorite scene is of them dancing on the bus shot with grainy film. The tales were harrowing to say the least. The issue of their mothers being Prostitutes was not what bothered me but it was the poverty, drug addiction, forced labor, child prostitution, slavery, pimping & murder (which the law turned a blind eye to) that bothered me. The caste system seems still to be in effect. But on a up note it was nice to see someone spend so much effort to try to help these kids out of an utterly desperate situation. And in the end some of them did seem like they really had a chance for a better life.

Nelson D gave it a6:
A fascinating film, but I couldn't shake the sense that these people spent all this time to make a movie that would portray themselves as saints, and engender exactly the kind of reactions you read here. Are Briski's efforts, which ultimately have mixed results at best, truly selfless and noble if they are trumpeted in this manner?

tim m gave it a5:
It was alright. very pretentious and repetetive. i saw a doc on pbs the week before i went to this movie of similar content, yet the tv movie was much more interesting, well-constructed, and moving.

Judi R. gave it a9:
This movie really moved me, Zana Briski was so inspiring. I give her so much credit for what she di. What is she doing know I wounder?

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use