started because the film's co-director, Zana Briski, just happened to visit Calcutta's red light district seven years ago.

Today, it's an award-winning documentary, the keystone of a non-profit organisation, a means of drawing attention to the talents of the Calcutta children, and an entry in BIFF's documentary competition.

"The whole time I was just responding to need," Ms Briski said yesterday from her home in New York. "I ended up teaching the children and then starting the foundation to help (them) get out of the brothels. I thought the whole story needed to be documented which is why we decided to make the film. The documentary's just the final part of it."

chronicles the amazing transformation of children born to prostitutes in Calcutta's red light district following their introduction, first to Ms Briski, and then to the film's co-director, Ross Kauffman.

An award-winning photographer, Ms Briski visited the area with a friend who was a social worker and ? moved to do something to aid the plight of the people there ? schooled the children for two-and-a-half years on how to capture photographic images.

"These kids are really, really talented but I think if you give any kid the opportunity; spend time with them and really teach them (you'll see results)," she said. "If you give a kid a camera, you never know what's going to happen.

"They loved it. They had a great time. We went on trips. They learned. They came to classes every week. Their contact sheets every week were different and exciting. I think this could happen in any community really where children are not given a voice or a chance."

Briski earned a master's degree in Theology and Religious Studies at Cambridge University before studying documentary photography. She made her first trip to India in 1995, producing a story on female infanticide.

In 1997, she returned and began her project on the prostitutes in Calcutta's red light district. Since 2000, she has conducted a series of photographic workshops with children of prostitutes in the brothels of Calcutta. The photographs produced by the children were auctioned at Sotheby's and appeared in Amnesty International's 2003 calendar.

Mr. Kauffman began working as a documentary film editor in 1992. One of his projects, , screened on HBO. In 2000, he began working as a director of photography, and most recently has begun producing and directing independent documentary films. In 2001, he teamed up with Ms Briski to begin work on . In 2002, he formed Red Light Films and, with Ms Briski, was awarded grants to complete the film, now re-titled.

"The photographs taken by the children are not merely examples of remarkable observation and talent; they reflect something much larger, morally encouraging, and even politically volatile: art as an immensely liberating and empowering force," said a BIFF spokesperson of the film.

"Devoid of sentimentality, defies the typical tear-stained tourist snapshot of the global underbelly. (Ms) Briski spends years with these kids and becomes part of their lives. Their photographs are prisms into their souls, rather than anthropological curiosities or primitive imagery, and a true testimony of the power of the indelible creative spirit." premiered at the famed Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Documentaries and has also shown in Miami.

"Bermuda is our third festival and we're really happy to take part in it," Mr. Kauffman said. "We did a lot of research on film festivals, heard good things about it from other people, and decided it would be a worthwhile festival to submit to."

A chance visit to Calcutta by Ms Briski, was the impetus for the project, the co-director explained.

"She just felt really strongly about the place, decided she was going to try to understand these people, and basically ended up living in the brothels on and off for about two years in an effort to get to know the women. In the process, she got to know the children. She just wanted to do something and so she started photo classes with the kids."

He was ? eventually ? drawn in by Ms Briski's enthusiasm for the project, Mr. Kauffman said.

"She kept saying she really wanted to make a film of these kids. I said, 'No way'. I didn't want to be a struggling film-maker for the next three years. I just wanted to do camerawork.

"She finally said: 'I'm going to make the film then'. She went. She shot four tapes and sent them back to me for my 'critique'. As soon as I watched the first tape, I fell in love with the kids and fell in love with the project and I was in Calcutta about three weeks later."

What he found especially interesting, Mr. Kauffman said, was that the kids were no different to those he'd met elsewhere.

"The kids were just kids. They're down there in very bad situations and have to deal with terrible things on a daily basis, but they're really still just children. I really connected with them. I felt a strong bond with them and they to me. We had a great time actually.

"It's hard to watch what they have to go through sometimes but at the same time it was a real pleasure for me to be able to share some time with them. They're just good kids. Really smart. Funny. Energetic. Resilient."

It was his hope that by the end of the documentary, viewers would come away with that exact impression.

"As I was editing and watching dailies ? as we were making the film ? I just felt my goal was to have people feel the same way about these kids as I do; to just really enjoy their time with them and feel strongly about them.

"If I can get them to love the kids a tenth as much as Zana and I love the kids, I feel that we would be doing our job. If you fall in love with the kids, you care about their stories. If you care about their stories, then you care about the greater story.

"I think their photography helps a lot. The photographs are so beautiful. Part of the story is that the kids ended up taking these amazingly gorgeous photographs of their surroundings. So people should be able to relate, not only because they're great kids, but if you see an artist's work and you react to that, you feel some kinship to that artist. And so I feel people will feel that as well. Their work is really beautiful and can speak to anybody."

Her devotion to the children led Ms Briski to start a foundation, Kids With Cameras. Through its web site and staged exhibitions of the kids' photographs, monies are raised to finance their education and support other photographers interested in embarking on similar projects.

Indeed, "every penny that's sold from their photography, goes directly to their education. It doesn't go to overhead for a foundation, it doesn't go to anything (else)," Mr. Kauffman explained.

Ms Briski said while it was great the documentary had attracted some attention, the benefits that attention afforded the children were what truly mattered.

"The idea (behind the Foundation) really is to empower kids. It's part so they can sell their own work, so they're basically supporting their own education, and the other part is (dedicated) to sending other photographers out to do the same thing ? a project that would support disadvantaged children around the world ? so they are able to go and do their work. It's just win-win for everybody.

"There's so many things we can do. Between the Internet and exhibitions and the film, there's a lot of different ways to reach people. And the children know what's happening to their photographs and are very excited about it. It gives them a real sense of worth that people are paying attention to them because nobody's ever paid attention to them before." is screening at the Little Theatre tonight at 9.30 p.m. and on Sunday, in the auditorium of the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI), at 6.30 p.m.

q Tickets for the Bermuda International Film Festival are on sale online at www.bermudafilmfest.com and daily from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the BIFF Front Room box office, Number One Shed, Front Street, Hamilton. Individual film tickets are $10.

q To learn more about Kids with Cameras, to view or buy the children's photography, or to send them an e-mail, visit www.kids-with-cameras.org.