For Immediate Release
Contact: Jennifer Geronimo
(619) 713-6756 - Jennifer@Indoctrinated.org
The statistics are staggering. UNICEF reports that two children per minute are trafficked for sexual exploitation in the world. Each year 100,000 teens in the United States fall victim to a sex industry that takes advantage of minors under the age of 18. (Source: Department of Justice). Locally, the FBI has identified the San Diego region as a “High Intensity Child Prostitution Area.”
So what is being done about this tragic issue? For one, San Diego filmmaker Jim Ellis has produced a short education film – “Indoctrinated: The Grooming of Our Children Into Prostitution” – in order to create awareness about and change around this issue. “Indoctrinated” – a 30-minute documentary sponsored by the San Diego County Office of Education – uncovers the scope and destructive nature of child sex trafficking and teaches parents and youth ways to protect the girls and the community. The film does so by revealing the tactics used by pimps and gangs to recruit, groom, psychologically coerce and indoctrinate victims into a life of sexual exploitation and violence … a life that no one would ever choose.
Says Ellis, “As a filmmaker, I was present as females talked about the horrors they have been through in a lifestyle they didn’t truly want. It’s horrific the physical torture and mind-games they endured, and I’m proud to be able to share their triumph over their abuse, as well as give hope to a community that must wake up to the nightmare these girls face on a daily basis.”
Two versions of this film have been prepared: a student version in partnership with the San Diego Office of Education and The ACTION Network, as well as a community edition which will be made available worldwide. The office of education will make the film available to educators and school forums throughout the county, and already there is interest from other parts of the nation to present the film.
Three years in the making, the film includes interviews with former prostituted youth, law enforcement, a former pimp, and parents of victims, as well as police ride-along footage.
A premiere screening for selected school administrators and city officials takes place Tuesday, December 6 at the University of San Diego.
The worldwide release of the film will be at 11 a.m., Saturday, December 31 at St. Marks Sanctuary (3502 Clairemont Dr. San Diego, CA 92117). The worldwide showing of the film will be part of a larger event - 1000 Breaths II - that includes a musical concert by international recording artist Karl Anthony and a “release party” to celebrate the release of the film and to ceremonially release anything that binds us as individuals. This event will also be a fundraiser to help disseminate the film. For more information and to register, go to http://www.1000Breaths.com
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