The Department of Justice estimates that there are 300,000 children at risk of being trafficked into sexual slavery in the U.S. In the first episode of A Path Appears, we meet the survivors behind these numbers.
Any Kid Anywhere: Iowa Sex Trafficking Survivor Stories is an excellent DVD produced and distributed by Braking Traffik. The NAHT also loans out copies of the DVD. This is a short, but effective, 17 minute interview with three Iowa female survivors who were lured into sex trafficking while in their teens. Anyone who doubts that Iowa youth are being trafficked needs to watch this DVD. The true accounts of survival send a message of hope and provide a sobering cautionary tale that may help other Iowa youth avoid victimization.
Learn the shocking true story of two teen girls tricked by traffickers. Brianna, 18, was a star student, cheerleader and waitress eager to break out of her small town to attend college in the big city. Lacy, 13, enjoyed church and school but struggled to help care for her siblings while her stepfather was deployed and mother worked to support the family. Brianna and Lacy share how traffickers used manipulation to lure them into the world of sex trafficking.
Gridshock is a documentary exposing the hidden and disturbing reality behind sex trafficking in Iowa and the often-overlooked reality about why the industry thrives—because there is a demand for it. Vanessa McNeal’s film features survivors of sex trafficking, local and federal law enforcement, advocates, politicians, and a recovering sex addict. What you think you know about sex trafficking will be challenged. Gridshock is now available online everywhere! This is the fourth, and most recent film by filmmaker Vanessa McNeal. Donations of $45,000 funded this 55 minute film. Vanessa recently received the 2019 Outstanding Human Trafficking Service Award from the Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking and Slavery. The award was presented by Governor Kim Reynolds on January 17, 2019 on behalf of the Iowa NAHT.
Hidden in the Heartland is a 14-minute film created by students in the Department of Journalism and Communication at Wartburg College for their capstone project. The film explores sex-trafficking in Iowa.
This documentary follows the journey of young survivors who were advertised on Backpage.com as their families engage in a legal battle not only with Backpage but with judges, special interest groups, and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, an internet freedom law that provides a safe haven for website publishers to advertise underage girls for sex.
This is an unvarnished and grim look at the world of sex trafficking. This film is a fictional description of one young girl’s experience. The producers interviewed many different trafficking victims and the main character in the film, Layla, is a composite of those victims. I Am Still Here is available on Amazon Prime.
From PBS.
We can’t change the world with only ideas in our minds; we need conviction in our hearts to fight trafficking. Hopelessness is the enemy of justice. Just Mercy can be found on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Nefarious exposes the nightmare of sex slavery as experienced by hundreds of thousands daily, through the eyes of both the enslaved and their traffickers. Nefarious features expert analysis from international humanitarian leaders, and captures the gripping and triumphant testimonies of survivors in order to galvanize hope and vision.
Filmed on five continents, in a dozen countries, Not My Life takes viewers into a world where millions of children are exploited, every day, through and astonishing array of practices including forced labor, domestic servitude, begging, sex tourism, sexual violence, and child soldiering.
Caged No More, Finding Home, Your Photo Fate on YouTube by Zhao.