Doco of the Decade (so far)

Browsing through the T.V. guide after World News on Tuesday night I came across the intriguingly titled ‘Born into Brothels’ on SBS Hot Docs series. Being a doco type of guy and having a connection to ‘the industry’ I thought that had to be better than watching folks with varying degrees of ‘celebrity’ (what ever that is these days) destroy the fine art of ballroom dancing.

Because it was from the US I thought it might be about children of brothel owners who lived in or around southern ‘cat houses’ (if they actually exist outside of Dolly Parton, Burt Reynolds movies?). The only other things I knew about it was it had a captivating title, made the ‘Hot Docs’ list and won an Oscar. Really wasn’t expecting a profound experience but that is certainly what I got.

Simply it is about children who live in the brothels of Calcutta’s red light district who are given cameras and are taught how to use them to record life from their perspective. I won’t go into more detail as the makers have a great synopsis on their brilliant website. They have also done similar projects in Jerusalem and Haiti and I strongly suggest you browse the bios of these amazing children. If you can read about the delightful 10 year old Micheline (bottom left in the collage) from Haiti and not be shattered you must have been assembled not born. Spend some time on the website, it’s absolutely fascinating, you can buy the works of the Calcutta kids and given that 'Kids with Cameras' is an internationally registered non profit organisation. Imagine that you can buy art – to create an air of sophistication, support kids – to increase the karma bank and get a tax break – what Kerry said, win win win!
I have ordered the DVD (and maybe a picture) from the site and will ensure those I know watch it; there will be a test people!

I have been listening to Lou Reed’s Dirty Boulevard a lot since seeing Born into Brothels. I see it is a description of the Western version of BiB.

Dirty Boulevard, Lou Reed from the album New York.

Pedro lives out of the wilshire hotel
He looks out a window without glass
The walls are made of cardboard, newspapers on his feet
His father beats him ’cause he’s too tired to beg

He’s got 9 brothers and sisters
They’re brought up on their knees
It’s hard to run when a coat hanger beats you on the thighs
Pedro dreams of being older and killing the old man
But that’s a slim chance he’s going to the boulevard

He’s going to end up, on the dirty boulevard
He’s going out, to the dirty boulevard
He’s going down, to the dirty boulevard

This room cost 2,000 dollars a month
You can believe it man it’s true
Somewhere a landlord’s laughing till he wets his pants
No one here dreams of being a doctor or a lawyer or anything
They dream of dealing on the dirty boulevard

Give me your hungry, your tired your poor I’ll piss on ’em
That’s what the statue of bigotry says
Your poor huddled masses, let’s club ’em to death
And get it over with and just dump ’em on the boulevard

Get to end up, on the dirty boulevard
Going out, to the dirty boulevard
He’s going down, on the dirty boulevard

Going outOutside it’s a bright night
There’s an opera at lincoln center
Movie stars arrive by limousine
The klieg lights shoot up over the skyline of manhattan
But the lights are out on the mean streets

A small kid stands by the lincoln tunnel
He’s selling plastic roses for a buck
The traffic’s backed up to 39th street
The tv whores are calling the cops out for a suck

And back at the wilshire, pedro sits there dreaming
He’s found a book on magic in a garbage can
He looks at the pictures and stares at the cracked ceiling
At the count of 3 he says, I hope I can disappear
And fly fly away, from this dirty boulevard

I want to fly, from dirty boulevard
I want to fly, from dirty boulevard
I want to fly-fly-fly-fly, from dirty boulevard
I want to fly awayI want to fly
Fly, fly awayI want to fly...