I spent tonight at New Life Robina watching Call+Response, a feature documentary film by Fair Trade Pictures exploring the issue of human trafficking around the world. It was a powerful night which raised funds for the Fair Trade Fund. Ideally its a movie that should be seen in cinemas. The movie raises the question of just what it would take to end the slave trade in this century.
The film is a project pulled together by Justin Dillon, a musician who was confronted by the slave trade while touring in Russia. Call+Response combines under-cover interviews around the world with an international series of live recordings, brought together in a commentary on the power of song by civil rights activist and philosopher Cornel West. We’re introduced to activists and political leaders Julia Ormond, Madeleine Albright, Daryl Hannah, Ashley Judd, and Nicholas Kristof.
Concert Against Traffic includes abolitionist performances by Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Talib Kweli, Five For Fighting, Switchfoot, members of Nickel Creek, Rocco Deluca.
Click on the image below to play the video in YouTube (HD)
Call + Response has created the Fair Trade Fund to help support non-profit organizations such as Not for Sale, International Justice Mission, Giving Children Hope and Free the Slaves. The fund drives projects aimed to abolish each aspect of human slavery including sex slavery, labor slavery, child soldiers and child slavery. All profits from the use of the Call + Response film, DVD, soundtrack, and iTunes downloads is directed, by the film viewers, to these projects.
So what would it take? Big issues require big solutions. Governments pay attention to this issue when voters make a noise about it. Pressure on manufacturers and importers clearly must make a difference. I liked the commitment expressed by people in the entertainment industry, to providing the music for the movement and articulating the causes of the helpless. The film showed though that we also need people getting stuck in at the local level. like my friends Paul and Carlie Somerville in Thailand.