FACETS CINÉMATHÈQUE
January - February 2007
The Facets Cinémathèque is located at 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. in Chicago. For more information on films playing in the Cinémathèque, please call 773-281-4114. To order advance tickets online, visit the TicketWeb website by clicking here.
Chicago Theatrical
Premiere
HIGHWAY COURTESANS
 |
WINNER
Jury Award Chicago Intl Doc Fest |
|
"Timeless in its observations"
-New York Times
"Extraordinary...Not many documentaries about poverty in the developing world are so
hopeful."
-Salon.com
"Absorbing, touching and sometimes enraging...It's a good, informative piece on the oldest
profession--and on how the world differs from what we usually see in the movies."
-Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
"Poignant and absorbing"
-Time Out Chicago
Recommended!
-Chicago Reader
-Chicago Sun-Times
This provocative coming-of-age film chronicles the story of a bold young woman born into
the Bachara community in Central India - the last hold-out of a tradition that started with
India's ancient palace courtesans and now survives with the sanctioned prostitution of every
Bachara family's oldest girl. Guddi, Shana and their neighbor Sungita serve a daily stream of
roadside truckers to support their families. Their work as prostitutes forms the core of the
local economy, but their contemporary ideas about freedom of choice, gender and self-
determination slowly intrude on the Bachara way of life.
Highway Courtesans follows
Guddi from the ages of 16 through 23 as she turns her world upside down, incurring the wrath
of her fathers and brother as she struggles with tradition, family and love in hopes of
realizing her dreams. In probing beyond the surface of a world of paradoxes,
Highway
Courtesans resists easy moralizing and reveals the very real costs - financial, social
and personal - for breaking with tradition. As a community hangs in the balance between
traditional and contemporary values, this gripping documentary raises universal questions
about sex, the roles of women, and the right of one culture to judge another.
Directed by
Mystelle Brabbee, 2005, India, BetaSP, 71 mins. In English and Hindi with English
subtitles.
Official site
New York
Times
Chicago Tribune
Time Out Chicago
Chicago Reader
Showtimes:
Fri., Jan. 26 at 7 & 8:30 pm
Sat.-Sun., Jan. 27-28 at 2:30, 4, 5:30 & 7 pm
Mon.-Thurs., Jan. 29-Feb. 1 at 7 & 8:30 pm
Tickets: