Jim Caviezel in ‘Sound of Freedom.’
Angel Studios / Courtesy Everett Assortment
As co-writers and director of the film Sound of Freedom, it has been troublesome to observe controversy and partisanship distract, even a bit of, from the deep intention of our work: to make use of the ability of movie to carry consciousness to the fact of kid trafficking.
Manner again in 2015, after we started researching and penning this challenge, we advised one another many occasions, “If there’s one challenge that may unite everybody, it’s ending little one trafficking.” We nonetheless consider that. Youngster trafficking isn’t a conservative or a liberal challenge. It’s a elementary human rights challenge, one which strikes at our very core as human beings.
It is usually a really troublesome topic, and it’s profoundly heartening that tens of millions of individuals have gone to theaters to observe a film about it. It’s equally heartening that this viewers spans the political spectrum.
A July 31 article in Newsweek reviews: “A brand new research has discovered that Sound of Freedom is considered favorably by nearly all of each Republicans and Democrats.” That very same Newsweek article begins, “The field workplace hit Sound of Freedom is vastly in style with Republican viewers, however maybe surprisingly it has additionally struck a chord with Democratic moviegoers.”
Why ought to this be “stunning”? The film, which stars Jim Caviezel and Mira Sorvino, was not made for Republicans or Democrats. It was made for human beings, as a result of little one trafficking is a matter whose ethical crucial is clear to the human coronary heart.
And it’s the challenge itself that we should confront.
We should confront the truth that, in line with the Division of Justice, America is among the many largest shoppers of kid sexual abuse supplies (CSAM), and that American cash helps drive each home and worldwide trafficking. We should confront and eradicate the sexual exploitation of kids. We should confront the underlying societal points and the legal enterprises that render youngsters vulnerable to trafficking within the first place.
Consciousness is step one. You may collect data and statistics about trafficking from no matter sources you belief: The United Nations, the US Division of Homeland Safety, your state and native legislation enforcement, or any of the numerous non-public anti-trafficking teams doing vital work.
The information will disturb you. In case you’re so moved, take into account discovering methods to assist the massive and rising community of organizations — each non-public and governmental — devoted to confronting human trafficking worldwide.
These issues are monumental, and their options would require political engagement — with all of the complexity and discord that this entails right now. However we can’t let our divided politics stop us from doing the work mandatory within the ongoing battle to finish little one trafficking.
Everybody who has seen Sound of Freedom is aware of that the film itself isn’t within the least political. It’s based mostly on the story of an actual individual, Tim Ballard, who give up his job at Homeland Safety to rescue trafficked youngsters. Within the improvement, analysis and writing of the story, we don’t recall a single dialog with Tim about politics. Why? As a result of private politics must be irrelevant when you’re rescuing youngsters from human trafficking.
For quite a lot of causes, Sound of Freedom is being known as “faith-based” or a “Christian thriller.” Relying upon your view, the time period “faith-based” is both a badge of honor or permission to low cost the work offhand. However why the necessity to label a movie within the first place? We made Sound of Freedom for folks of religion, folks with no religion, and everybody in between — as a result of trafficking is a matter that issues to everybody.
The film has additionally been unjustly related to sure excessive conspiracy theories. We wrote the film in 2015 and shot it in 2018, nicely earlier than anybody concerned had ever heard of such theories. It’s subsequently actually not possible for the film to reference these theories, and anybody who has seen the film is aware of it doesn’t. The truth is, NPR, Rolling Stone and nearly each different media outlet that has written in regards to the film, both positively or negatively, has made it clear of their tales that Sound of Freedom itself doesn’t include any references to conspiracy theories. We took our inspiration from precise occasions, lots of which have been reported by main media shops on the time.
Did we compress the timeframe of Tim’s precise story and regulate sure occasions for artistic causes? After all. This was by no means meant to be a documentary. Because the Los Angeles Times wrote: “As with nearly any movie ‘based mostly on a real story’ — there have been questions in regards to the accuracy of its depiction of the real-life Ballard, whose group Operation Underground Railroad claims to have saved a whole lot of victims up to now. On stability, although, Sound of Freedom directed and co-written by Alejandro Monteverde, and co-starring Mira Sorvino and Invoice Camp, tackles a brutal if uncontroversial subject: Everybody agrees that the exploitation of kids is a horrific crime that should be stopped.”
That, to us, is the underside line. When the film rolls, we belief that clear-eyed viewers will agree with the LA Instances and see the work for what it’s. Many tens of millions have already got.
We perceive that everybody, together with these of us who made the film, have totally different views on many points. We made Sound of Freedom in a honest effort to unite folks round a elementary human rights challenge. No single curiosity group owns the problem of trafficking. All of us personal it, as a result of it’s occurring on this planet all of us share.
The query is what we are going to do about it — all of us.
