The purpose of this article is to discuss the issues related to the image organization of the documentary genre based on two materials that emphasize the image of the child: Promises (2001), by Justine Shapiro and B. Z. Goldberg and Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids (2004), by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski. Firstly, I expose some elements of the constitution of that particular language, as well as some of the changes that were and are being made in this film genre. Then I move on to the analysis of the aforementioned films and, in particular, the way the relations of credibility derived from the images and the construction of their corresponding narratives take place. Parallel to this, as I believe such materials offer us more than the real versus fiction dialogue, I discuss, more broadly, the images that make us think when they place, side by side, children, abandonment, poverty and death. This is about lives, unique stories that would certainly be destined to be forgotten and erased, but, captured by the motion picture camera, invite us to see that there is more to it, there is dignity and art.
Education; Child; Movie; Image