Big-eyed, wide-eyed, sad-eyed children: Constructing the humanitarian space in social justice documentaries

Abstract

With increased media access to global events, humanitarian advocates within the Western elite have illuminated subaltern populations—those who are cut off from mobility as a result of economics, race, gender, and class. The space in which this subaltern population becomes visible is often the result of Western mediation of events that are defined as newsworthy by mainstream media or of strategic value to private advocacy groups.In this article I explore the neo-colonialism of mediation in the use of images of and produced by children in Born Into Brothels: The Children Of Calcutta's Red Light District (Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski, 2004), Invisible Children (Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole, 2003), and Shake Hands With The Devil (Peter Raymont, 2004). Despite the intention of the filmmakers, their position of privilege does not consistently provide a perspective from which the representation of the other is acknowledged or challenged.