Rebecca Dharmapalan and Zoë Simone are filmmakers from Oakland California who have made a short documentary called International Boulevard, which is about child sex trafficking in the Oakland area. It won first place at the 2013 Girls Impact the World Film Festival. It is a damn good short documentary, and I strongly recommend that you take the time to watch it.
I am happy to see that these women have taken on this subject. It is epidemic in this country. Girls 10 and younger are subjected to become prostitutes, though the average age is between 12 and 14. The sad part is that it is in your backyard. I live in Tampa, Fl which has the highest rate of child prostitution in the State. Fortunately, we have safe harbor laws that recognizes that child prostitutes are not criminals but victims and are treated as such. I’ll get into that more.
I am taking on this subject in the feature film I am developing. My goal is to make an impact and show the brutal realities of sex trafficking. Right now I am doing research for it, and am in the middle on Holly Austin Smith’s book Walking Prey, How America’s youth are vulnerable to sex slavery. It is a powerful and insightful book that I suggest you read. It will open your eyes.
They are also in the process of making a feature film. They have started a Indiegogo campaign to try to raise money for it, so let’s help them out in this. Click here for to go their Indiegogo page.
My journey into film 