Human
trafficking. It's illegal, and it's big business.
According to the International Human Rights
Group, it's a $15 billion a year global industry.
The U.S. Justice Department estimates that in
this country alone, nearly 300,000 children are at risk of becoming victims of
commercial prostitution.
This spring, a full-length feature film will
hit movie theaters, shining a bright light on the darkest side of human
trafficking... the child sex slave trade.
The movie is shot in Thailand, but the setting
is the back streets of Phenom Pen, Cambodia.
And, this is a movie with roots stretching all
the way back to Bakersfield.
Mira Sorvino and Dermot Mulroney star in
"Trade of Innocents."
They play an American couple, still reeling
from the abduction and murder of their child, now drawn into the lives of young
girls being exploited for sex in southeast Asia.
It's an issue close to Sorvino's heart as a
U.N. Ambassador to the Office on Drugs and Crime.
"It just has to be something that we as a
world of caring individuals, of moral people, say no to and really get active
about it rather than just deploring it and then walking away," said
Sorvino.
Dermot Mulroney plays an investigator who
poses as a child sex tourist, intent on breaking up the crime ring that runs
the sex slave industry, an acting experience that became in large part, a life
experience.
"It's an issue that needs to be attacked
from every direction, from the child to the government itself. The truth is
that there are organizations out there doing this, and what they need is more
money, more help, more people, more awareness. Because I'm one of those people,
I didn't know about this until I took this role," said Mulroney.
The setting is Cambodia.
UNICEF says southeast Asia, especially the
Mekong region, is a hotbed for child sex tourism.
"Trade of Innocents" exposes the
criminal element and those who've committed themselves to fighting it.
Jim Schmidt of Bakersfield is co-producer of
the film.
Dr. Bill Bolthouse is bankrolling the movie.
Yes, he's part of the Bolthouse farming family.
The production financing came from Valley
Republic Bank.
"I never went in to the ag business. My
father just told me do what God wants you to do, and so I actually went into
medicine," explained Bolthouse.
This soft-spoken physician from Colorado
became aware of the sex slave trade four years ago during a humanitarian
mission to set up a hospital in Cambodia.
"So I was there doing medical work, but I
took my whole family with me. And, it was a chance for my girls, who were 11,
11 and 9, to interact face to face with girls, much their same age, who had
just been brought out of forced prostitution," added Bolthouse.
In 2009, a filmmaker friend of Bolthouse
approached him about making a movie about child sex trafficking.
Bolthouse was eventually put in touch with
Bakersfield's Jim Schmidt, a producer for Dean River Productions.
"And, it just became clear that not only
we could make this movie for him, but we were like-minded, that our heartbeat
was the same in terms of wanting the issue to be put out there," said
Schmidt.
And, the common cause that binds these two men
and their families, is to expose the child sex trade and to pay tribute to
those in law enforcement trying to fight it.
"There's really no one out there who's
done this at a feature film level with major talent to really expose the issue.
But, people don't go to the movies to be educated or preached at. They go to be
entertained at the end of the day, even if it's a dramatic impactful story like
this. And, so there's a great dramatic story on top, on a bedrock of
reality," explained Schmidt.
For Bill Bolthouse and his family, "Trade
of Innocents" is an extension of their passion for engaging in health care
and humanitarian causes, from Africa to the Baltics.
"Our family wants to be a blessing to
others and to help those less fortunate," he said.
"Trade of Innocents" shines a harsh
light on the web of social forces that fuel the child trafficking trade. The
film is set in Cambodia, but those in the know will tell you the child sex
slave trade is not exclusive to southeast Asia. It's happening right in our own
backyards.
"It happens within blocks of where we are
right now in Santa Monica," said Bolthouse. "It happens in
Bakersfield, in Denver. Children are being sold for sex. You can get an underage
girl delivered to your house for sex almost faster than you can have a pizza
delivered in most major cities in the U.S."
We checked with local law enforcement,
including the FBI, and officials say right now they are not working any
investigations involving child sex trafficking in Kern County.
"Trade of Innocents" hits movie
theaters next spring.
Video:
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