Unfolding in the urban slums of India, documentary The Revolutionary Optimists attacks the notion that where one is born should alone determine their prospects for health and happiness. If Whitney Houston’s soaring voice once awakened a populace to the notion that children are our future, The Revolutionary Optimists again highlights the fact that the best chances for change lie not in the simple rescue of adolescents, but in empowering them to become agents of change.
The movie centers on Amlan Ganguly, an ex-lawyer and the charismatic founder of Prayasam, a Kolkata-based NGO. Known as “Dada” to all the kids of the neighborhood, Ganguly pushes and cajoles them, demanding that they help work for better futures. He’s up against some difficult and troubling statistics; 12 percent of children ages five to 14 in India work, and 47 percent of girls are married by their 18th birthdays. These and other factors contribute to a deficit of hope, a tamping down of aspiration levels, Ganguly admits.
Co-directed by Nicole Newnham and Maren Grainger-Monsen, The Revolutionary Optimists doesn’t quite wrestle to the ground a more focused dramatic through line; in focusing on the lives of several kids, it’s sometimes rather unclear in marking time or elucidating consequences, which impacts its connection a bit. But neither does the film ever lose its capacity to casually shock or move a viewer, as when Ganguly shares with the children that he was raped by a family caretaker when he was six years old. It’s a stunning moment, rendered more amazing by Ganguly’s explanation of how he used that terrible moment to focus his life. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here; for more information on the movie itself, click here to visit its website. (Shadow Distribution, unrated, 85 minutes)
