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Stopping Traffic: The Movement to End Sex-Trafficking

Directed by Sadhvi Siddhali Shree

Documentary Feature
USA | 78 min | 2016

Today, 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 investigates the international crisis of human sex trafficking, particularly of minors, from a deeply personal point of view. It is anchored by frank interviews with child sexual abuse and sex trafficking survivors and veteran activists, with additional commentary from social service agents, academics, and young activists.

Our story traces the links among child sexual abuse, child-focused cyber-porn, prostitution, and the enormously lucrative market for cyber and in-person sex trafficking. We illustrate how children are primed early to experience extreme, habitual exploitation and abuse, which then may define the only experience of physical intimacy and the only life that they know.

An estimated 27 million people are trafficked worldwide every year, delivering an easy $32 billion a year to their enslavers. Our story journeys to the Philippines, Mexico, Thailand, Iraq, and major U.S. cities to provide raw images and first-hand documentation of a crime that prevails across every culture and at all socioeconomic strata. We explore the practices among families, in the streets, and behind closed doors to explain how a child or young adult is groomed to be trafficked, at an average cost to a trafficker of $90, but with a potential to yield thousands.

We establish how and why the U.S., with its relative affluence, technological sophistication, and solid tourist industry, has become the greatest source of sex traffickers’ customers. Our most popular event for scoring a trafficking arrangement is the Super Bowl.

The film is a call to action, intending to inspire the viewer to join in the movement to seek an end to human trafficking, helping to break the isolation of millions of voiceless victims. We are particularly reaching out to young people, hoping to enlist the next generation of activists.

Stopping Traffic - Siddhayatan TirthSadhvi Siddhali Shree
Director, Producer

Sadhvi Siddhali Shree is the first North American Jain female-monk, a US Army Iraq veteran, international speaker, author, documentarian, and an activist for social justice. Driven by her deep-seated devotion to humanity, she uses her talents and skills to raise awareness about violence in the world and ways to change it. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from California State University, Long Beach and a background in web development, marketing, video production, and book publishing, she has helped spread the teachings of her spiritual mentor, Acharya Shree Yogeesh, which has touched and transformed millions of lives. She serves as the Spiritual Director of Siddhayatan Tirth and International Society of Human Unity’s Director. She’s passionate about social movements that focus on non-violence, human rights, gender equality, trafficking, and the youth.

Stopping Traffic - Poster

Film Information

Director: Sadhvi Siddhali Shree
Country: USA
Year: 2016
Language: English
Runtime: 78 min
Rated: MA

Credits

Producers: Sadhvi Siddhali Shree
 Editor: Jason Calhoun

Connect With This Film

BIFF - Beloit International Film Festival
BIFF | Beloit International Film Festival