Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids/The New Heroes: Their Bottom Line is Changing Lives

Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids. Ross Kaufman and Zana Briski. 85 minutes. 2004. Kids With Cameras. 341 Lafayette Street, Suite 4407, New York, NY 10012. Phone: [phone]. www.kids-with-cameras.org. $25.00.

The New Heroes: Their Bottom Line is Changing Lives. Marion Rice. 240 minutes. 2005. Oregon Public Broadcasting. PO Box 2284, South Burlington, VT 05407. Phone: [phone]. www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes. $29.95.

Born Into Brothels and The New Heroes are documentary films that illustrate important sociological concepts such as global poverty, childhood, and the dynamics of social change. Born Into Brothels, winner of 27 awards including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, chronicles the daily lives of eight children living in the brothels of Calcutta's red light district. Though Zana Briski originally intended to live with and study sex workers, as soon as she entered the brothels she met the children, who became curious about and eager to use "Zana Auntie's" camera. Briski set about teaching them weekly photography classes. The film documents her attempts to break the generational cycle of prostitution by getting the children out of the brothels, such as for day photography trips to the zoo and the beach, as well as for the more permanent placement in boarding school. An exhibition of the children's photographic work highlights the film.

The New Heroes is a four-hour series hosted by Robert Redford that documents 12 stories of pioneering solutions to some of the most intractable social problems around the world. Divided into four episodes, each segment contains three vignettes, ranging from 15 to 20 minutes each. Episode 1, Dreams of Sanctuary, concentrates on a man who risks his life to end child slave labor in India, the creation of Delancey Street as a safe haven and new beginning for ex-convicts in San Francisco, and the formation of a home for AIDS...