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00:00 "Does that make you feel giving a child is freedom?"
00:04 Sound of Freedom has made over a hundred million dollars at the box office, proving popular
00:09 with some conservative audiences.
00:11 "It is the fastest growing international crime network that the world has ever seen."
00:16 The movie purports to be based on the story of former Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard's
00:21 efforts to fight child trafficking.
00:24 But some survivors of trafficking say the film does not resemble reality, and that it
00:28 may give audiences the wrong idea about trafficking.
00:32 Jose Alfaro is a lived experience expert on domestic minor sex trafficking.
00:38 He says, "Trafficking looks a lot different."
00:42 "Now, the next part is very important.
00:44 They are going to take you."
00:47 "More times than most, it's happening to communities of people that we, that most people don't
00:54 care about, right?
00:56 And it's those living in poverty.
00:59 It is people of color.
01:01 It is the LGBTQ community."
01:03 Chris Ashe is the Survivor Leadership Program Manager at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery
01:09 and Trafficking.
01:10 They say that films like Sound of Freedom and before that, Taken, give the wrong impression
01:15 about trafficking.
01:16 "We lose sight of how it actually happens.
01:19 We introduce elements that aren't true.
01:22 We create narratives that are actually going against a lot of the work that people with
01:27 lived experience in this field, working in the field, have been pushing back against
01:32 for decades."
01:33 "This film, and many other films that are sensationalized, the Hollywood story, it's
01:38 savior trauma porn, right?
01:40 People love that.
01:41 People want to feel like, 'Oh, I could be a superhero.'
01:44 Or they love to hear stories about people being superheroes."
01:48 "But what I do have are a very particular set of skills."
01:52 "You quit your job and you go and rescue those kids."
01:56 "It's just kind of a boring and pretty tasteless film.
02:01 Not particularly well made or acted."
02:04 Rolling Stone culture writer Miles Clay recently went to see Sound of Freedom and shared his
02:09 opinion.
02:10 "So I wrote a negative review while pointing out that it sort of misrepresents the subject
02:16 it's supposed to be about and the thing it's supposed to be a call to action about.
02:21 And people are very upset."
02:23 Clay says Sound of Freedom carries a misleading message in a poorly executed medium.
02:28 "Just really confused on a procedural level.
02:30 It doesn't understand how arrests and plea deals and things of that nature work.
02:38 It's invested in this story of this guy, Tim Ballard.
02:42 He basically becomes an international espionage guy, just totally unsanctioned by the U.S.
02:49 government.
02:50 So, you know, in a sense the movie is not interested in how these things get done or
02:55 how people get prosecuted or funneled into the system.
03:00 Because the paperwork is boring, of course.
03:05 And there's a sense that that's not doing anything.
03:08 You actually have to go down there and you have to be kicking down doors and arresting
03:13 these guys just basically on no authority but your own.
03:17 It's like a citizen's arrest.
03:19 It's very goofy that way."
03:20 "Movie and TV representations of anything are going to be edited and changed and fictionalized
03:28 in ways that make it engaging.
03:30 Because honestly, if you wanted to watch a two-hour movie about someone who's a trafficking
03:36 victim sitting around struggling internally with whether or not they should leave or stay,
03:43 that's a really boring film."
03:44 "The people who are angrily emailing me about this, you know, I've had people say, call
03:48 it a documentary.
03:50 They think it's a documentary.
03:52 And they're just flat out not using that word correctly.
03:57 That's not what a documentary is.
03:58 You have somebody playing somebody else.
04:01 You already are, you know, one level removed from the real story.
04:05 But the movie is doing everything, everything it can, down to using security camera footage,
04:10 you know, like Verite stuff.
04:12 They just lace that in there to give you the impression that what you're watching all really
04:18 happened."
04:19 For some real-life survivors of trafficking, Sound of Freedom seems to gloss over the stories
04:24 of the trafficked.
04:25 "Why aren't we hearing the perspective of what happens to the victim after they come out
04:32 of trafficking?
04:34 What does that entail?
04:35 What is the work that they have to do?
04:37 Why aren't we hearing the experience from the survivor's perspective?"
04:42 "In this movie, it's interesting that children who are sexually assaulted by adults are then,
04:49 you know, they then see their captors handcuffed and the kids are just fine.
04:54 As though there's no lingering trauma from what they've just been through.
04:58 They're all like smiling and happy because the bad guys have been arrested.
05:01 It is just such a thoroughly unrealistic depiction of the issue and it's really like, you know,
05:06 irresponsible and tasteless because, you know, the real problem is an awful, awful thing
05:13 and to try to make entertainment out of it that doesn't even deign to, you know, wrestle
05:20 with it as it actually exists in the world is just, you know, it's just such a disservice
05:25 to these victims."
05:26 "This is what survivors go through after is they're really trying to learn how to undo
05:36 all of the harm that was done to them."
05:38 "I would say after someone has experienced trafficking, there's a really long journey
05:43 ahead that years later, there's still going to be impacts of that trafficking on their
05:48 heart and their lives and their relationships in their communities and families."
05:54 "Ultimately, it's a lifetime process.
05:56 It's a lifetime of therapy.
05:58 It's a lifetime of talking about it."
06:01 Ash is concerned that Sound of Freedom may provide misinformation and disinformation.
06:06 Sound of Freedom star Jim Caviezel has drawn criticism for echoing conspiracy theories
06:11 about child trafficking in interviews about the movie.
06:15 "We've seen a lot of support for this movie from people who support QAnon to name one
06:21 of the conspiracies."
06:22 "Child trafficking and using them as sacrifices, that's part of what Q is working."
06:30 Ash is worried that the enthusiasm of the film's supporters could unknowingly hinder
06:34 actual work to fight trafficking.
06:37 "It's based on a false foundation and it then ends up deterring or even countering
06:43 legitimate policies and interventions that could help survivors."
06:47 "At best, it's a distraction from that.
06:49 At worst, it's an obstacle to people who are doing actual advocacy and actual recovery
06:56 work for these victims."
06:57 Neither Jim Caviezel nor Angel Studios responded to Inside Edition Digital's request for comment.
07:03 "I'm not fully upset that this film came out.
07:08 What I'm upset about is that there aren't actionable steps and education that are given
07:16 to people so that they can actually help and make a difference."
07:20 So what can people do to learn more about trafficking?
07:23 "The first thing I would recommend anyone who watches this movie and is moved to do
07:29 is to find out who's doing this work locally, already in your area, and how you can support
07:34 them because this is one of those things where because it's so complex, there's so many nuances.
07:41 We've built a body of evidence about what works and what doesn't and what causes harm
07:46 that for someone to jump in quickly without really spending time to learn that, they run
07:51 the risk and likely will cause more harm than good.
07:55 So find out who's already doing it.
07:56 What do they need to better support their work and engage in that way?"
08:00 "Putting money into homeless shelters, putting money into our communities, donating your
08:06 time, getting educated on the reality of human trafficking, or even helping to change legislation
08:14 within your own state to really make sure that we're creating safety in our own communities."
08:21 "There's wonderful resources.
08:23 I know specific to child trafficking, Love 146 is an exceptional and reputable organization
08:30 that has a great blog post out there kind of giving people who were motivated by this
08:35 movie some practical tips on what to do.
08:39 I also know that Freedom Network USA has a lot of great resources about how trafficking
08:44 actually happens that's rooted in really understanding risk factors."
08:50 Chris Ashe worked with the National Survivor Network to release a statement on Sound of
08:55 Freedom.
08:56 "So that statement can be found in the news and updates section of NationalSurvivorNetwork.org.
09:02 We also have an extensive resource library with a lot of journal articles, fact sheets,
09:08 toolkits, lots of different ways to engage in your learning about human trafficking at
09:13 our website."
09:14 Jose Alfaro has an additional suggestion and a wish.
09:17 "The only way that we're going to help end a situation is if we hear the many different
09:22 stories of how this is impacting different communities or different people who come from
09:28 different walks of life.
09:29 I just wish that people would be a little more compassionate towards others just because
09:34 we're different or our stories are different or where we come from is different.
09:38 At the end of the day, we can just be compassionate."
09:42 This is Inside Edition Digital.
09:44 [Music]
09:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]