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By Omar Aguilar
Recently, I went to the movies with twenty of my family members. When we arrived, ten other relatives showed up. We didn’t plan that! By the time the movie started the room was full, quite shocking for an afternoon on a 4th of July. The reason was the release of the Sound of Freedom movie, the film produced by Mexican actor and producer Eduardo Verastegui. This feature film was made five years ago. During that time, the producers tried every possible way to have a movie studio pick it up for distribution. By the time you’re reading this, the movie has surpassed one-hundred million dollars in the box office. This is only in the United States. The film will soon premiere in Mexico and elsewhere.
Why the record-breaking success for this indie film? For many of us the topic it touches on is somewhat foreign, human trafficking, particularly child trafficking, is something we don’t hear about enough, but this doesn’t make it less real. According to the latest report from the United Nations, there’are an estimated 27.6 million people being trafficked annually. Some estimate the number as high as 40 million. As the demon Nefarious tells the nice doctor in the movie of the same name “not even the Romans in the height of their power had that many slaves.” It seemed society didn’t care much for human trafficking. But that was not true. We just didn’t know enough about it. That’s why it is of the outmost important to tackle the subject.
Human trafficking is real, sexual child abuse is real, demons are real.
Sound of Freedom is based on the real life story of Tim Ballard, who after witnessing child trafficking decides to do something about it to the point of quitting his government job to save children. I am not saying more, please go watch the film if you haven’t.
Sound of Freedom is a tour de force not because it’s full of action or jam-packed with explosive scenes. The power of it comes from the fact that is a reality happening right now all around the world. Kids are being taken from their families, stolen from their parents to be sold to the highest bidder to be sexually abused. It gives us a glimpse into a dark evil-world, one that maybe we didn’t know existed; and one that is very close to us here in the United States. We, as a nation, are the highest consumer of child pornography in the world. Yes, sexual child abuse is real. There are demons among us. These demons are prowling around the world feeding on the vulnerable, abusing the poor to please their lowest instincts and those of their masters.
Sound of Freedom is not the first movie to tackle this subject, remember Taken? The beauty of Sound of Freedom comes from the fact that it’s more than a film. It’s meant to shake your core, to make you question things. The movie is meant to make us want to do something. It’s a film with a purpose, a greater one, to shine light into a hidden place, shine light into the forgotten.
To those of us who have watched the film: what are we going to do now? How can I be an agent of change? What can I do? We all can do something about this tragedy! Maybe we can’t all become another Tim Ballard, Jim Cavaziel or Eduardo Verastegui. But we can all pray for them and thank them for their courage and bravery. We can certainly keep the momentum going by watching the film, promoting it, inviting everyone to see it. And when the time comes do more, we must step up and help end this horrendous crime.
One of the interesting things happening now is the film is pushing people to take sides, many mainstream media are downplaying the film (I wonder why). We see lots of public figures supporting it, politicians, actors, etc., bravo!
Then Samuel said, “Speak Lord for your servant is listening” 1 Samuel 3: 11-17
The young Samuel did not know God was calling him, yet he listened and willingly submitted himself to the call. May we all have the same spirit of listening. May we be brave enough to reply: yes Lord I will do as you want me to.
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