Some movies..

Yesterday I noticed that I haven't really seen any new movies so since I was home sick I watched some movies from free movies on demand. The Sundance Channel/Film Festival has a lot of really good films.

The first movie I watched was a Spanish movie called El Bola. It's about this young boy named Pablo who lives in a very violent environment. His father beats him and he's sort of neglected by his friends. One day this other boy named Alfredo transfers to his school and they become friends. Alfredo's family is very loving and fun and they treat Pablo as if he were their own son. When Pablo's father finds out about this he becomes very violent and prohibits Pablo from seeing them again. It's a beautiful movie. You should watch it.

The movie I'm watching today is Born into Brothels. It's a documentary about these children growing up in the red light district of Calcutta. This woman gives all of the children cameras and basically teaches them to see the world in a different way. Along with teaching them this, she puts their photography in exhibitions to raise money to get them out of the brothels. She tries to get them educations and just remove them from that society because the children are on the road to becoming prostitutes and drug addicts and violent people. One of the factors that determines if they can receive an education is if they are HIV positive. Fortunately, when the children are tested they all come back negative. One of the little girls is forced to work all day starting at 4 am. She cooks and cleans and takes care of people when she is only about 10 years old. She works so hard that she barely has time to rest. She gets paid for her work to help her family but if she goes to the boarding school, the family will lose that small income. Despite these factors, the children will only have opportunities in life if they receive an education. The children are beautiful. The things they say are so profound for their age. They all seem so mature although they are still kids.
These are some quotes from the kids:

Avijit

"I used to want to be a doctor. Then I wanted to be an artist. Now I want to be a photographer..."

Gour

"I want to show in pictures how people live in this city. I want to put across the behavior of man."

Shanti

"Zana Auntie teaches us so well that everything goes into our brain. We like doing photography so much that we forget to do our work!"

Suchitra

"When I have a camera in my hands I feel happy. I feel like I am learning something...I can be someone."

Tapasi

"When we first got to use the camera, it felt so good. Before we never had a chance...we'd watch other people doing it and wish we had a camera too."