Stop Traffick

Stop Traffick begins with the titular fictional short film, which stars Stephen Baldwin as a member of a secret network that extracts young women from a life of servitude and delivers them to a safe haven. Written and directed by Wes Halula, the story follows a frantic mother who is trying to locate and bring home her daughter, now a sex slave kept under the watchful eye of brutal pimps. The second part of the presentation is the short documentary Human Trafficking in America, which partly concerns the making of Stop Traffick but goes beyond to lay out how trafficking actually works, why young people become ensnared in it (often while still living at home with their families), and what can be done about the problem. A powerful look at a human rights issue that is more often associated with Far Eastern countries such as Thailand, this eye-opening and often harrowing program is highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (T. Keogh)