Playground. A film by Libby Spears - ICA screening 9.29.09 Boston
Info and trailer: http://www.playgroundproject.com/
This film focuses on sex trafficking and sexual abuse of children in the USA.
"Playground is the best film I've seen on the abuse and exploitation of children. In the tradition of our greatest protest art, it is both aesthetically sophisticated and politically committed. Nuanced and sensitive, it avoids the usual sensationalism surrounding this topic. This is the untold story of an American underworld." -- Zoe Trodd, Harvard University
I attended a special screening of this film on Tuesday Sept 29th at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston, including VIP cocktail hour before the film and Q & A afterward. Speakers, panelists, and special invited guests included:
Karen McLaughlin from the Human Trafficking Task Force http://httf.wordpress.com/about/,
Cheri Jiminez from Kim's Project http://www.kimsproject.org a Boston based program offering respectful services for women impacted by the sex trade and street economies [their services include harm reduction, intervention, recovery, and transition and reintegration],
Alicia Foley Winn, executive director of the Boston Initiative to Advance Human Rights http://www.bithar.org,
Diane E. Levin, Ph.D. professor of education at Wheelock College [she is an internationally recognized expert on how sex and violence in media and commercial culture affect children and contribute to such societal problems as precocious sexuality and child sexual abuse. She is co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org and Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children's Entertainment http://www.truceteachers.org
Catherine MacKinnon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharine_MacKinnon,
Ashley Judd** (who is an articulate, dedicated warrior in the fight against sex trafficking of girls all over the world--spoke about meeting Libby Spears through a phone conversation with Gloria Steinem),
and of course filmmaker Libby Spears [video interview from Tribeca Film Festival]: http://movingpicturesmagazine.com/videoaudio/mpminterviews/libby-spears-playground-1.
Katherine Chon, president and co-founder of the Polaris Project (a nonprofit in DC combating human trafficking and modern day slavery both domestic and international) http://www.polarisproject.org/ was the panel moderator. I have not been in a room filled with so many brilliant, articulate, passionate, movers and shakers in a long time.
As I stood around in the midst of the VIP gathering before the screening I couldn't find anyone I knew. Just then a friendly woman came toward me with hand extended. "Hello, my name is Denise Kasell. What's yours?" She explained she was a new resident of Brookline...a NYC transplantee. Her new job? Executive director of the Coolidge Corner Cinema. Former job? Director of the Hampton International Film Festival for ten years. Liked her right away.
I was particularly drawn to what one woman in the film had to say. Jan Hindman http://janhindman.com/about_jan.shtml, spoke clearly and passionately about the need for prevention. She studied and researched the problem of sexual abuse for thirty-four years, working with both sexual offenders and sexual victims through mental health endeavors, the educational realm, as well as private practice. Jan Hindman recently published There Is No Sex Fairy -- To Protect Our Children From Becoming Sexual Abusers, completing her twenty-year-old goal of providing a resource that addresses the sexual abuse problem at its source -- teaching adults how to teach sexual respect to children.
Info and trailer: http://www.playgroundproject.com/
**Actresses Ashely Judd and Julia Ormond fight against sex trafficking in the US with documentary "Call and Response" made by musician turned filmmaker Justin Dillon. This film covers a wide spectrum of trafficking in the slave trade, offering many ways individuals can get involved.
http://callandresponse.com/ Called the first rockumentary to expose 27 million of the world's most terrifying secrets.