SOLD the Movie: Behind the Scenes
Christopher Buck: When people go through a tragedy, they either become victims, they become survivors, or they become what we call lighthouses, which are individuals who use that experience to help others through it. I think what you’re referring to with the older girls helping, the younger girls come out of this problem is that very essence of the human spirit, which allows us to give to others.
Jane Charles: I think that the film shows that really well. Lakshmi goes into the brothel, and the whole time she’s there, she takes care of others; she learns from her from the young boy how to read and write, and she is still in the community, the brothel areas are communities. But, what a horrible experience for anyone, let alone a child, to go through as far as being with ten or more men per night for who knows how long and then having to heal from that. But, if they can, get out and that’s the key is getting them out early enough and getting them out before they contract AIDS, which is one of the biggest issues with the younger girls, is that many of them do contract AIDS and then have to be on medications after. But, the human spirit is resilient, and especially in children. You see that spark in Lakshmi. You see her carry that with her, and you see that she, when she gets out, ready to have this new life. I think that survivors will make the best leaders, and will also be able to teach and take care of younger survivors as they, heal.
Christopher Buck: What I was saying is that it was amazing during the film how you were able to make Lakshmi retain her all yearn innocence, at least on the inside, despite the horror that was going on to her on the outside.
Jeffrey Dean Brown: One of the films that I saw that really inspired me was a film called Born into Brothels, which was a documentary which, was super powerful. And the reason it was so powerful was the kids, who were the sons and daughters of working prostitutes, are given cameras to take photographs of the world around them. So, we see their world through their eyes. The Shakti, the energy, and light in these kids were just as powerful as wonderful, as creative as any kids you’ve ever met anywhere: their intelligence, their humor, they were giggling and laughing. And yet, they’re growing up in basically a cesspool, a human sort of sewer. Every night, there’s drinking, customers are coming and buying their mothers and, yet they come in with such light. That film created a non-profit that was dedicated to educating all the kids that were in the film, it also created, as a legacy project, something called Hope House, which is a boarding facility that is still being completed, and we’ve shown a number of times to raise funds for Hope House, and we will continue to do that. And we’re actually helping a group called The Art of Living to build 10 more facilities to help kids get out of the red light district, because what happens is, if you’re a child of a sex worker, when you turn 10 or 12, you are forced into the life of your mother and her work. But, if you can get the kids at eight and get them into safe houses and facilities and boarding facilities, they can be given an education and raised and healed and brought up, to address this without actually having as many of the scars as the kids who were forced into it and were trafficked themselves. If you’re 12 or 13, and you’re forced into human trafficking, first, you’re sold as a virgin for a much higher price, then you’re stitched up to 10 times and sold as a virgin again and again, which makes you very vulnerable to HIV and AIDS. And after that, you’re forced to service 10 to 20 men a night.
So, a girl who’s 13 or 14, if she’s in this for three or four years, she’s slept with literally hundreds of thousands of men who basically are raping her every night, paying for the privilege of using her as a commodity. And so, the shelf life of these kids is very short, and they have to be rescued quickly. Otherwise, they can, literally die from what they’re exposed to.
