She Has A Name, an independent film from B.C. and Alberta-based Unveil Studios, draws awareness to the $40 billion global sex trade that sells women, children, and men for their bodies, as much as 15 times a day.
Of the two million people that the UN reports are currently being exploited in the commercial sex trade every year, less than one per cent are rescued.
This film aims to make a difference and change these statistics. Not only will She Has A Name spread the word about the prevalence of human sex trafficking, but a portion of the film’s proceeds will go directly to front-line efforts to end trafficking throughout the world.
Eugenia Yuan (Memoirs of a Geisha), Gil Bellows (The Shawshank Redemption), and Will Yun Lee (The Wolverine, Hawaii Five-0) make up just some of the international cast and crew, who collectively represent 10 different nations. Vancouver Island’s Daniel Kooman of Unveil Studios co-directed and produced the film. The story of She Has a Name follows Jason (Vancouver actor Giovanni Mocibob), a lawyer, who poses as a john to build a legal case against a ruthless pimp trafficking girls into Thailand. He meets Number 18, a girl forced to work as a prostitute in a busy Bangkok bar, and discovers her testimony is key to proving his case. When his investigation starts to unravel, Jason realizes that, rather than save 18 from her horrific circumstances, he has put her life at risk.
With a crime syndicate now chasing him down, Jason must try to rescue Number 18 in the crowded city before the pimp moves her for good.
To raise awareness of this issue, She Has A Name has partnered with global anti-trafficking agencies that work tirelessly every day to prevent trafficking, to bring perpetrators to justice for their heinous crimes, and to provide education and social services to trafficking victims so that they not only survive, but thrive upon rescue and rehabilitation.
The goal of She Has A Name is to get audiences to watch the movie and learn more about this global issue, while subsequently making a contribution to fight human trafficking.
The film was screened in Melbourne, Australia; Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa; London, England; Belfast, Ireland; and Red Deer, Alberta on Dec. 2, 2016 – International Day for the Abolition of Slavery – and expands to screenings in Paris, Berlin, Ottawa and Courtenay through Dec. 10, which is the UN’s Human Rights Day.
The film is being screened locally at Stan Hagen Theatre on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 7.
Tickets ($25) are on sale now at www.shehasanamefilm.com/screenings
Directors Daniel Kooman and Matthew Kooman will be in attendance at the Comox Valley premiere, which will wrap-up with a Q&A with the filmmakers.
The filmmakers wish to acknowledge the generous support of the Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce to help make the screening in Courtenay possible and other event sponsors including North Island College, ABC Printing & Signs, Salvation Army and 40 Knots Winery.
Twenty per cent of all sales during this release window will be directed to She Has A Name’s global anti-trafficking partners to fund freedom.