Eduardo Verástegui:Child trafficking starts with pornography".Alejandro Monteverde (Sound of Freedom): "Children should be protected by the whole world".This month's movie recommendation: Sound of freedomOne week. This is how long it takes Sound of Freedom in Spanish movie theaters. This independent film about the trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation, directed by Alejandro Monteverde and starring Jim Caviezel, Mira Sorvino, Eduardo Verástegui: and Javier Godino, has been number one at the box office in Spain, surpassing the million euro mark in its first 6 days on the screen and has been seen by more than 150,000 spectators.
In addition to participating in the film, Eduardo Verástegui is the producer of this film adaptation of Tim Ballard's life. Omnes was able to talk to Verástegui on the occasion of the promotion of this film in Spain.
How do you come to know Tim Ballard's story?
-A few years ago, at a child trafficking awareness concert in Los Angeles, I met Paul Hutchinson and some other friends. Hutchinson introduced me to Tim Ballard who, in turn, introduced me to other former CIA, FBI, military..., a large group of people who were involved in rescuing abducted children for sexual exploitation.
Alejandro (Monteverde) was then writing a story on the same subject, but it was fiction. When I told him that I had met these people, that they could advise him and I introduced him to them, he erased all of the above and focused on this true story.
Being a global problem, this scourge of child abuse has not been addressed so directly in film. Is it scary to face something we "don't like"?
-Evil triumphs when good people remain silent. When good people remain silent, they are no longer good people, because they are part of the problem. That is hard to understand.
If a person receives information like this - about human trafficking - and looks the other way, pretends not to hear anything and remains silent, with his arms folded, it is extremely dangerous because, if our struggle is not going to be for freedom, then tomorrow they will come for yours.
If I do not fight for your freedom, sooner or later, I am doomed to lose mine.
If you receive information like this you should do something immediately.
When I heard what they do to these children, for me it was no longer a project, it was a call. In the face of a call, you cannot hesitate. A call is something bigger than yourself, you have to follow it, regardless of the consequences.
When we react in this way, we do not allow evil to take over our culture.
We are where we are because many people, in the past, let it go. Silence encourages the pedophile, the criminal. If, on the contrary, you give a 'stop' and turn on the light, the darkness does not enter.
Why do you think there has been this concealment?
- It could be many things: ignorance, fear... We should ask those who do nothing why they do nothing and see what they answer.
In my case, when I received this information I decided to do something and I am still doing it. I have been doing it for eight years and I will continue to do it.
What was the most expensive thing to do in this film? The filming? The production?
-The filming was an incredible experience. It was very fast, even.
We had obstacles before, for example, at the time of getting the funds to carry it out, to get the actor... and later, especially, at the time of getting distribution.
I wouldn't expect someone to tell me what to do. It's between you and God. Ask God what you can do and He will answer you.
Eduardo Verástegui. Producer of "Sound of Freedom".
What do you expect from this film?
- I hope it has the potential to open eyes and, above all, detonate this movement that seeks to eradicate trafficking. I hope people, when they see the film, will ask themselves what I asked myself eight years ago: What can I do?
If we each question ourselves with the desire to find something to do, we can put an end to this terrible reality.
That question is for each individual to answer. I can't tell you what to do. I know what I had to do. I was a filmmaker and I made a film.
I wouldn't expect someone to tell me what to do. It's between you and God. Ask God what you can do and He will answer you.
Child abuse, trafficking Where do they start?
-In many places and in many ways. It starts at home, when there is an absent father, an absent mother or both. That is fertile ground for evil. Parents present, but a quality presence, makes it more difficult for evil. If you're not looking out for your child, someone else will be, and that someone else could be the enemy, the pedophile... and you've already lost him.
We have to ask ourselves, for example, how we teach our children to use social networks because it is a gateway to this world. No one becomes a perverse criminal pedophile overnight, they are always steps. One step leads to another, for better or for worse. If we don't teach teenagers or children how to surf the Internet, they will browse around and come across images that generate addiction and these addictions create future clients of pornography and trafficking.
We see fruit every day. From changes in legislation to people who have suffered abuse and are talking about it and healing.
Eduardo Verástegui. Producer of "Sound of Freedom".
Also cultivate values, take care of what we see, hear or say. Thinking about how we treat others, respect for others, for life... All these things are "handbrakes". If we don't take care of this we get to a society where we kill each other. The brake can start with a person who says "Enough is enough, I am not going to be mediocre, I am going to put myself in God's hands and obey what God asks of me!
Here there are two kinds of soup: either you obey or you don't obey. That's it. If you obey, there are consequences; if you don't obey, there are consequences. Each one can ask himself and answer himself, assuming the consequences.
Do you think there is going to be a change of course?
-The answer I think lies in the results of the film. The film is number one, as an independent film, in the world.
We see fruits every day. From changes in legislation in some Mexican states to parents who are starting to be more with their children. People who have been abused and are talking about what happened to them and had been silent for years. Talking and healing. It is touching hearts and saving lives.
I recently introduced a bill in Washington that, if carried out, could locate 85,000 children we don't know where they are. These unaccompanied Mexican and Latin American children entered through the Mexican border into the United States between 2020 and 2022. They were handed out by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security without the necessary fingerprint security protocols and we don't know where they are. This is a bipartisan bill. Going forward we would have to work bilaterally between Mexico and the United States to put an end to this problem. The United States is the number one consumer of sex with children and Mexico is their number one supplier. We have to do something. It's a wicked, global, human problem that we all have to attack before it's too soon.
The film has had all kinds of criticisms, have they affected you?
-Personally, I think that really, what it has done is helped my voice reach more people. More people know what's going on. I see it in a positive light, the film has been a success, it is the first time that an independent film made by Mexicans is number one on the Fourth of July. All the bad things that can happen in terms of criticism, defamation, even slander... I see it as something positive. I'll worry when they don't hit me because on that day, as they say at home, you're no longer good for anything.
