Stopping Traffic

With the instant reach of social media and the explosion in cyber porn, a child sex slave can be purchased online and delivered to a customer more quickly than a pizza. Stopping Traffic: The Movement to End Sex Trafficking initiates the conversation on a difficult topic to discuss – with raw images of life on the streets, heart-pounding rescues and gut-wrenching, personal stories – ultimately offering a story of hope and empowerment, with the goal of engaging others in launching a movement to end this modern-day form of slavery and abuse in the U.S. and abroad.

A four-year-old child’s arms are cut off to make him a more sympathetic beggar when his captors set him alongside the road … girls as young as one are used as pawns in cyber porn … young girls are groomed as prostitutes by “lovers,” many abducted from their homes and taken far away to be held as sex slaves … parents sell or are tricked into giving up their children … an activist recalls the horrors of being trafficked during her own youth … a reformed trafficker reveals his deepest regrets and recalls his own sexual abuse as a child … These are the stories of Stopping Traffic.

With 27 million victims, human trafficking is the second largest criminal enterprise in the world, predominantly victimizing women, with children making up as much as half the statistics … But it’s not just a back-alley enterprise in Asia and other underdeveloped regions of the world, it’s also prevalent in industrial nations and – in conflict with closely held beliefs about our society in the United States – right here in our own backyard.

Prevailing across every culture and at all socio-economic strata, the U.S. – with its affluence, technological sophistication and robust tourism industry – is the greatest source of customers. Sex trafficking has occurred in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with the highest incidence rates in California, Texas, Florida, Ohio and New York. The most popular event for scoring a trafficking arrangement? The Super Bowl.

Stopping Traffic marks the feature film debut of producer/director Sadhvi Siddhali Shree, a Jain monk, U.S. Army veteran, international speaker, author, passionate activist for social justice … and victim of childhood sexual abuse.

Shot in the U.S. (Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans), Iraq, Mexico, the Philippines and Vietnam – Shree’s slight stature and white robe cutting a stark image in the dark and threatening alleyways of the film – Stopping Traffic takes an unflinching, first-hand look at this shadowy underworld, telling the shocking story through the eyes of survivors, veteran activists, front-line rescue/aid organizations and celebrities who are lending their clout to the cause, including Dolph Lundgren (The Expendables), Jeannie Mai (co-host, The Real) and Kristen Renton (Sons of Anarchy).

Having taken a vow of monkhood, Shree embarked on a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, launched in 2014 and raising $25,482 – and enlisted the volunteer time of dozens of supporters – in order to bring her vision and mission to life in this raw and powerful documentary.

All proceeds from the film will fund trafficking awareness campaigns; a private, U.S.-based rescue team (headed by “The Rescue Guy” in the film, an ex-military man who needs to preserve his anonymity), which operates domestically and abroad, and has helped thousands of victims within the last decade; and help support three shelters for victims: Eden House in New Orleans, Fundación Camino a Casa in Mexico City and Visayan Forum in Manila, Philippines.