Greetings again from the darkness. Director, Jain monk, war veteran, and sexual abuse survivor Sadhvi Siddhali Shree follows up her 2017 documentary, STOPPING TRAFFIC: THE MOVEMENT TO END SEX-TRAFFICKING, with a focus on the rare survivors/escapees of the horrific global issue labeled sex trafficking. The initial statistics she provides state 45 million are trafficked each year, and only about 1% ever escape or are rescued. We learn this “industry” generates approximately $150 billion (with a b) in annual profit.
The film allows five victims to bravely tell their story, concentrating not just on the ordeal they survived, but also what has happened since. Their stories are about healing and recovery, and we hear from three women in the United States, one from Ethiopia, and one from India. Their stories are different, yet they share the similarities of being forced into a tragic and dark underworld.
The women are often asked, “Why didn’t you just leave?”, and their answers revolve around such things as fear, shame, and violence. Threats against themselves and their families were commonplace. One of the survivors defines Sex Trafficking as ‘sex for money through force, fraud, and coercion.” Another revisits the condo where she was violently attacked for wanting to leave. She re-enacts that night and we see photographic evidence of the brutal beating she endured.
Director Shree tells the details of her sexual abuse at age 6, and we learn the target age for traffickers can be 12 to 17. With their pain often invisible on the outside, the women discuss what they have done while attempting to rebuild some semblance of a “normal” life – always looking over their shoulder and living with the memories. Two key points emerge and those are opening more shelters for victims and training law enforcement on how best to treat those who have been sex trafficked … contrasting from runaways, for example. Therapy is obviously crucial, and what is most important is keeping discussions going so that, for as long as sex-trafficking exists, we are addressing the prevention, the rescue, and the treatment of victims.
In limited theaters on March 25, 2022 and on VOD beginning April 15, 2022
Posted by David Ferguson
Greetings again from the darkness. It seems society has reached a point where most of us are at least a bit skeptical of someone being nice. We assume there is an ulterior motive for acts of altruism. Writer-director-actor Cooper Raiff won a SXSW award for his first feature film (a title I can’t print here), and he follows that up with this feel-good dramedy that may very well inspire us to have a bit more faith in humanity … well at least some of humanity.
Greetings again from the darkness. We are informed that the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage festival features 7000 musicians across 14 stages over 8 days. It’s a massive and popular event and co-directors Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern set out to highlight the festival’s 50th anniversary in 2019, and ended up with a blend of music, history, and culture. Mr. Marshall, along with his wife Kathleen Kennedy, is a frequent producing partner of Steven Spielberg, and he also directed the 1990 favorite ARACHNOPHOBIA. Marshall and Suffern previously collaborated on music documentaries of Carole King-James Taylor, and The Bee Gees.
Greetings again from the darkness. There is a fine line between movies that cheat and those that cleverly keep us guessing. The first feature from writer-director Eli Horowitz and Matthew Derby seems to fully embrace cheating as a storytelling structure, relegating us to merely observing rather than guiding us as engaged participants. The film opens with a severely mismatched couple driving deep into the woods for a weekend getaway. We’ve all heard that “opposites attract”, but Kath (an excellent Winona Ryder) and Max (John Gallagher Jr) have been together for a year, and not only do they have opposite life goals, the two can barely hold a conversation. It’s not just awkward, it makes no sense that these two could have co-existed for so long.
Greetings again from the darkness. Finding one’s self can be a long and arduous life journey for some. Along the way, they may be influenced by parents, friends, co-workers, and even public figures. This phenomenon is explored by director Gracie Otto (sister of Miranda) with a terrific script from lead actor Krew Boylan. It’s a film that starts out light-hearted and comical and evolves into something much deeper … self-actualization.
Greetings again from the darkness. You need only know one thing to put this on your must-see movie list: beloved EGOT Rita Moreno plays a bad*** teacher in a horror-comedy. As a bonus, the film is loads of fun and is actually filled with comedy and suspense. Directed by Maureen Bharoocha and co-written by Rebecca Flynn-White and Zak White, the film allows the 90-year-old WEST SIDE STORY star to shift her pesona into Mrs. Wheeler, the demanding AP Physics teacher who thrives on intimidating her students to do better.
Greetings again from the darkness. For as far back as we can trace human existence, the older generation has grumped on the younger one. It’s unlikely Neanderthal parents used the term ‘slacker’, but they undoubtedly got their point across to the youngsters who were inept at hunting and never seemed to gather much. Gillian Jacobs is best known for her acting (the TV series “Community”), and in directing her first feature length documentary she serves up proof that the rising generation offers plenty of hope for the future.
Greetings again from the darkness. It’s difficult to know whether the biggest story here is the one of the cringiest movies you’ll see or the fact that writer-director-star James Morosini based it on the actual relationship and events with his own father. Morosini opens the film with this: “The following actually happened. My dad asked me to tell you it didn’t.” That sounds kinda funny and sets the stage for some father-son conflict. But it certainly doesn’t prepare us for what we are about to watch.
Greetings again from the darkness. We have all heard the stories of lottery winners who blow the entire pot and end up back where they started, or sometimes even worse off. There is also no shortage of stories where alcoholism ruins lives and relationships. Director Michael Morris’ first feature film combines the two elements in a script by Ryan Binaco, who based the lead character on his own mother. The two men have done their work well and, in a way, win their own lottery by having cast Andrea Riseborough in the lead. Ms. Riseborough has long been labeled underrated, but I believe the more accurate label is underappreciated.
Greetings again from the darkness. Expectations were sky high for the latest from writer-director Jeff Baena. His twisted humor was evident in THE LITTLE HOURS (2017), and he has collaborated again with his HORSE GIRL (2020) co-writer Alison Brie, who also takes the lead role. The assembled cast is filled to the brim with folks who have proven comedy chops, and much of the film takes place in gorgeous Italy. What could go wrong? Well, technically nothing goes wrong, it’s just not as right as we hoped.