FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeff Weaver, Melony Ritter
(501) 760.6410 office
press@np.edu
February 3, 2016
NPC HOSTS FREEDOM FILM FESTIVAL FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING TASKFORCE
Hot Springs, Arkansas – National Park College (NPC) will host a Freedom Film Festival with the Human Trafficking Taskforce of Garland County on February 9, 2016. Four films are scheduled to play throughout the day beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the Computer Resource Auditorium (CR200).
NPC Behavioral Intervention Specialist, Susan Millerd, MSW said, “Human trafficking is an important issue facing our community. It is happening right here where we live and putting our youth at risk. We want to do our part to help educate the community about ways we can help combat this horrible crime.”
Mayor Ruth Carney, member of the Human Trafficking Task Force of Garland County said, "Human Trafficking is not an isolated crime that happens solely in other countries. The reality is that every state in the United States of America has reported it, including our city of Hot Springs, Arkansas. This Freedom Film Festival will provide four eye-opening films on Human Trafficking occurring amongst us and what we can do to join the fight. This is a free event that you will not want to miss."
The event is open to the community and will help raise awareness of the dangers of human trafficking and provide visitors with ways they can make a difference. A brief question and answer session will follow each film, including discussion with human trafficking survivors and special guest, Mrs. Hot Springs National Park and NPC alumnus, Amber Wells. Light refreshments will be provided.
Show times:
9:30 A.M.: A Path Appears
A Path Appears, from the creative team that brought you the groundbreaking series Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, follows intrepid reporters Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn and actor/advocates Malin Akerman, Mia Farrow, Ronan Farrow, Jennifer Garner, Regina Hall, Ashley Judd, Blake Lively, Eva Longoria, and Alfre Woodard to Colombia, Haiti, Kenya, and throughout the United States as they uncover the harshest forms of gender-based oppression and human rights violations, as well as the effective solutions being implemented to combat them.
12:30 P.M.: Very Young Girls (1hr 22 min)
Critically acclaimed by the New York Times and Film Festivals around the world, Very Young Girls is an expose of human trafficking that follows thirteen and fourteen-year-old American girls as they are seduced, abused, and sold on New York's streets by pimps, and treated as adult criminals by police. For more info on the commercial sexual exploitation of girls visitwww.gems-girls.org.
2:30 P.M.: Nefarious: Merchant of Souls (1hr 36 min)
Nefarious: Merchant of Souls is a hard-hitting documentary that exposes the disturbing trends of modern day sex slavery. From the first scene, Nefarious gives an in-depth look at the human trafficking industry, showing where slaves are sold (often in developed, affluent countries), where they work, and where they are confined. With footage shot in over nineteen different countries, 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.
From initial recruitment to victim liberation—and everything in between—the previously veiled underworld of sex slavery is uncovered in the groundbreaking, tell-all Nefarious: Merchant of Souls.
5:30 P.M.: In Plain Sight (68 min)- followed by question and answer with Survivor and the Director of Partners Against Trafficking Humans
Executive produced and narrated by Natalie Grant, the 68-minute documentary features six modern-day abolitionists as they fight sex trafficking across America. Journeying to six US cities, we open the viewer’s eyes to what’s happening down the street “in plain sight”. Through engaging interviews with numerous victims of sex trafficking, the force, coercion, and deception of the children and women becomes apparent. In the midst of the darkness, stories of hope and freedom emerge as each survivor shares how she was impacted through the work of a sex trafficking aftercare home.
