EIFF2008: Very Young Girls

I fell almost guilty for criticising this film given the serious nature of the problem, but I couldn't get into this at all. It's a documentary about the plight of American girls who have been lured into the world of prostitution, many of them at a shockingly young age.

Part of the problem is that while the subject matter is certainly worthy of coverage and should be publicised as much as possible, as a piece of filmmaking it's pretty pedestrian. The interviews seemed to feature an awful lot of uninteresting talking or else covered stories that were too similar, or jumped around without concentrating on any one aspect in particular.

The whole thing felt like it had been shot rather quickly and thrown together with little imagination, as if the unpleasant nature of the problem would be enough to keep us watching. It's a shame, as it's an important issue, but this just isn't the film to do it justice.