The K11 Project

L. M. L. Branson, J. Cioschi, H. Pearlman, C. Rhoads, D. Sharon
(Moving Pictures Magazine Morality issue, Oct./Nov. 2006)

Priority Films' The K11 Project and The RedLight Children campaign aim to raise awareness and promote action against child sexploitation through three films and a rapidly growing international grassroots campaign.

Moving Pictures Magazine takes a close look at the people who produced the most comprehensive film project undertaken to date about child trafficking and child prostitution, and their unique challenges.

If you had asked former investment banker and attorney Guy Jacobson five years ago about child sexploitation, he, like most, would not have hesitated to condemn it. However, despite his indignation, he, like most, did not feel compelled to act against it.

A trip to Cambodia changed that. As a tourist walking through the streets of Phnom Penh in September 2002, Jacobson found himself surrounded by more than a dozen five- to seven-year-old girls who aggressively and explicitly solicited him for sex, some reaching straight for his crotch. While he fought to remove their hands, one girl, who barely reached his thigh, said to him, "I yum yum very good." She continued to implore, "I no money today. Mama San boxing me." He gave the girl money and walked away determined to do something.

He spent the next two years researching child sexual slavery, prostitution and trafficking, and was shocked at the extent of the problem. "I was aware that there was underage prostitution but I didn't realize that one-year-old babies are sold as prostitutes. I didn't realize that over two million children fall into this category every year. ... There are probably victims and perpetrators in every city, large and small, in virtually every country."

This personal encounter and newfound knowledge compelled Jacobson to utilize mass media to expose and personalize the issue of global child sexploitation. The K11 Project and RedLight Children campaign are the product of that decision.

Jacobson returned to his New York apartment to write a narrative film informed and inspired by his experiences. While there, he met Adi Ezroni, a renowned Israeli actress and television host studying in New York. "We met for a coffee", Ezroni recounts. "Guy told me about his experience and his idea of bringing mass audiences to the theatre through a compelling narrative film about a girl sold to prostitution. I remember saying, ‘Hey! If you really want to do this, I'm in. I'll even be the water girl on the production if that was the only position available.' Little did we know the kind of adventure we were about to embark on."

Ezroni and Jacobson soon decided to complement the narrative film, Holly, with a feature-length documentary about the issue, The Virgin Harvest, and a "behind-the-scenes" television series about the whole project, The K11 Journey.

Producing three films was a way to expose the issue through three different angles. The "based on the true story" in the narrative; the actual stories and the factual extent of the problem in a hard-hitting documentary; and the making of the project which targets a whole different audience, one that's interested in the behind-the-scenes aspects and learns about the issue indirectly.

Producing all three at the same time, says Jacobson, was also a practical and economical consideration, as it would circumvent obstacles in resending crew and equipment to Cambodia. "It was a war to make these films."

To raise money for the films, they met Mr. Amit Kort, a successful businessman and entrepreneur, and his wife, Dr. Smadar Kort. "We were moved by the subject matter, impressed with the idea and the screenplay, and we decided to fund the project," Amit Kort says. "We have two sons," adds Smadar Kort. "How can you ignore this issue? I cried when I read the script."

In 2004, Jacobson, Ezroni and the three crews traveled to Cambodia to film. While shooting in Cambodia gave the films authenticity, it also created a series of obstacles.

Days before the shoot began, officers at the Thai-Cambodian border detained the equipment trucks for a week. The producers were subjected to endless bribery and extortion. The Cambodian government and the Vietnamese mafia wanted to confiscate the reels. The production was protected by an army of guards with AK 47s at all times.

The narrative film, although scripted, was shot on location in K11, the notorious pedophile haven that the project is named after. Shooting in real brothels created emotional difficulties as it forced the actors to confront the reality of the child sex trade they were portraying. At fourteen years old, Thuy Nguyen, who played the title role of Holly, was only a child herself, which made coping with the subject all the more challenging.

Filming the documentary in active brothels across Cambodia was also extremely dangerous and emotionally draining. The small crew worked undercover, using espionage equipment, such as cameras hidden in buttons and glasses, to avoid detection by brothel owners.

Because the subject and location made the production vulnerable to threats, the crews had to keep their connection to each other a secret. At one point, the narrative film's line producer and the documentary crew sat down in the same border-town restaurant by coincidence, but they did not speak a word to each other for fear that someone would make the connection.

In conjunction with the film project, Jacobson is launching an international human rights movement to combat child prostitution and child trafficking. "We're aiming to decrease the demand side of the market's equation. There are amazing organizations that help the victims, but we are trying to deal with making it harder for the predators to get to them, by strengthening enforcement on an international level and by increasing personal and national penalties on domestic and international underage sex crimes," Jacobson explains.

Unique in its use of mass media to raise awareness about the issue, The RedLight Children campaign has gained rapid momentum with the help of major NGOs (such as Amnesty International, Vital Voices and AFESIP) and numerous smaller grassroots organizations. The campaign has the tangible action-reaction goal of launching an easy-to-use website (redlightchildren.org). After filling out basic contact information, the site's users can send a pre-written letter directly to their representative in Congress. The Campaign launched at the United Nations on September 8.

More than 2,500 college students and other volunteers from around the world have joined the campaign, some giving up their vacations to work from home or out of Jacobson's apartment, aka "the office." "We are [also] looking for corporations that want to exhibit corporate citizenship and help propel the campaign," says Jacobson. Ogilvy, an international leader in advertising, has already decided to do the branding and marketing for the campaign and structure RedLight's website pro bono.

Jacobson and Ezroni believe that "mass media can and should promote real social change. We can harvest and channel the attention and concern garnered by the films to specific and unique actions that can truly reduce the number of children sold and trafficked to prostitution each year."

Jacobson adds, "There are already brothels closed, traffickers in jail and children who have been rescued from brothels due to this project. If we can put even a tiny dent, let's say lowering the two million sexually exploited each year by even five to ten percent, this is the biggest reward we can get."

Holly, the narrative, features an international cast including Ron Livingston (Office Space, Band of Brothers), Chris Penn (Reservoir Dogs, After the Sunset), Udo Kier (Dogville, Shadow of a Vampire), Virginie Ledoyan (8 Women, The Beach), and newcomer Thuy Nguyen. The film centers on the relationship between Holly (Thuy Nguyen) and Patrick (Ron Livingston), an American dealer of stolen artifacts living in Cambodia. Holly is sold by her family and smuggled to Cambodia to work as a prostitute. While she waits to be sold at a premium for her virginity, she meets Patrick, who is losing money and friends through gambling and bar fights. Holly's sale to a child trafficker disrupts their initial connection. Patrick's pursuit to find Holly and her unrelenting efforts to escape her enslavement illustrate the harsh reality of child trafficking through the eyes of one of its victims. The film premiered to capacity audiences at the Edinburgh Film Festival in August.

The Virgin Harvest documents the experiences of multiple survivors of the child sex trade. Nobel Prize nominees Mu Sochua and Mam Somaly, head of AFESIP, who have dedicated their lives to fighting the child sex trade, guide us through the stories of two victims: Sokha and Sereum. Thirteen-year-old Sokha was rescued from a brothel by her twenty-year-old sister, Reena. Prior to her escape, she had been drugged and raped continuously for months. Thirteen-year-old Sereum's parents sold her for her virginity at age nine to a Japanese businessman, who would eventually sell her to a brothel. The film follows her as she learns the details of her trafficking and returns to her home.