10 Human Trafficking Films to Watch
These are 10 of my favorite human trafficking films, a mix of both documentaries and fictional stories based on truth. National Human Trafficking Awareness Day is January 11, and these are all excellent suggestions for film viewing parties to raise awareness or funds. Each one has a short preview to give you an idea of what its about.
One thing to note about this list: A number of the major television networks have had news specials on human trafficking, some of which are very good, and most of which can be difficult to get. If the news special is recent, you can sometimes find it on the network's website. This list contains films which, even if not commercially available, can usually be ordered or purchased with a fair amount of ease. Some are recently released and may be harder to get a home copy of. However, most of the production companies are really helpful and willing to work with activists who want to use the film for public awareness purposes.
An Academy Award winner for Best Feature Documentary, Born into Brothels tells the amazing story of several children in the red light district of Calcutta. It is a stirring look into prostitution, sex trafficking and the effect growing up in a Red Light District can have on a child.
While it's more about love, India, corruption and love again, child trafficking features prominently in Slumdog Millionaire. The plight of street children trafficked for begging in India fits as seamlessly into the film as the children themselves do into the landscape of Mumbai. It's not an activist film, but it has a true activist heart.
This film is based on the book of the same name and covers the modern-day abolitionist movement. The film both exposes the terrors of human trafficking and inspires hope through the stories and work of contemporary activists.
I may be ever-so-slightly partial to this documentary because I helped create it, but DEMAND. is an excellent film which centers around investigative footage of sex traffickers, pimps and johns. It tells the story of the "marketplace of exploitation" in four countries. Plus, it's relatively short and you can watch it online.
Holly is a fictional film about an American man (Ron Livingston of Office Space fame) living in Cambodia, and his attempts to save a young Vietnamese girl from sex trafficking. It is stirring in both emotion and accuracy. This is one to see with a friend so you can unpack it together.
This film contains several story lines and themes of women being sold as property in marriages and businesses, as well as forced prostitution and child labor and sex trafficking. It is an interesting study in how a cultural lens can shape what is considered exploitation by both the exploiters and the victims.
Very Young Girls will make you very uncomfortable, as it focuses on American children in prostitution in America. Through the eyes of several women who have since escaped, we see the nuanced and brilliantly evil ways pimps and child sex traffickers lure and entice children into their "stables", and the tactics they use to keep them there.
This film brings together a star-studded musical cast to examine the issue of modern-day slavery and how we should and are responding when called to. The film is powerful, and the music is on the amazing side of awesome.
Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Tim Robbins, The Day My God Died shows the humanity behind the statistics of sex trafficking. The film focuses on the stories of several Nepalese girls who were trafficked into prostitution as children.
Another fictional-story-based-on-real-scenarios, Trade tells the story of a 13-year-old Mexican girl kidnapped to be sold on an internet auction. Her brother and his policeman friend (played by Kevin Klein) are desperately trying to get to her before she is sold to the highest bidder. It's a well-made film, even if it does occasionally lean towards the sensational.
Amanda Kloer
is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
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