EXCLUSIVE: The Fight To End Child Sex Trafficking Begins At Home — Audiences Pack Theatres For Sound Of Freedom As Local Non-Profit Gears Up To Fight Modern Slavery
God’s Children Are Not For Sale.
(Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) — The theatres at Hayden Cinemas have been absolutely PACKED for the past week, as North Idahoans flood the box office to watch Jim Caviezel’s new film Sound Of Freedom. The line to get in the theatre was out the door.
According to the theatre’s owner, Mike Lehosit, the Sound of Freedom is out-performing Indiana Jones by 200%, and other theatres seem to be experiencing similar trends.
Mike Lehosit — Photo: CRAIG NORTHRUP CDA Press
Lehosit, who refused to shut down his theatres during the Covid fiasco noted the stark contrast between the Sound of Freedom, and another new movie called No Hard Feelings which hit theatres last week taking the #1 spot at other theatres in Coeur d’Alene.
The film No Hard Feelings is about a family who pays a young girl to have sex with their introverted 19 year old kid. “The big draw is that it shows Jennifer Lawrence naked,” said Lehosit. “That's garbage. I don't wanna play movies like that.”
“It blows me away how two polar opposite movies are playing side by side at other theatres. One movie is about stopping sex trafficking, the other… they were looking for somebody to pay for sex. It just blows me away.”
Rotten Tomatoes, a movie rating website, has given Sound of Freedom an 88% on their “tomatometer” and a 100% score among audiences.
The Sound of Freedom is an independently produced film that chronicles the true story of Tim Ballard, a former CIA operative and agent for the Department of Homeland Security, who has rescued over 6,000 victims of child sex trafficking, and arrested over 5,000 pedophiles, traffickers and enablers involved in this crime against humanity.
Tim Ballard - Founder of Operation Underground Railroad
Ballard became frustrated with the Department of Homeland Security’s lack of strategies to rescue kidnapped and trafficked children, and because of their inability to prosecute offenders in non-U.S. related cases, Ballard created a non-profit called Operation Underground Railroad to do what the U.S. Government can’t (or wont) do to end human trafficking.
The first step? Raising awareness.
According to the Attorney General of California, human trafficking $150 billion-a-year global industry, with more than 24.9 million human trafficking victims worldwide at any time. 4.8 million of these victims are trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation, and almost half of them, 2 million, are children.
According to UNICEF, human trafficking is the second most profitable illegal industry in the United States, second only to the drug trade. In 2021, 72% of trafficking situations were for sexual exploitation, and according to the Polaris Project, sex trafficking is the most common type of trafficking in the U.S. and is the fastest growing international criminal network in the world.
Incidents are occurring in ALL 50 States.
Yes, even here in Idaho, with incidents occurring in the Spokane Metro area, Boise, Twin Falls, Pocatello and Idaho Falls.
In an exclusive interview, the Idaho Tribune spoke with Nate Lewis, the Chief Development Officer at Ballard’s non-profit anti-trafficking group Operation Underground Railroad.
Lewis, who is based in Coeur d’Alene Idaho, told the Tribune that the movie has been a smashing success at raising awareness to this global problem.
“From what we're seeing… theaters are selling out. It's just way bigger than we thought. […] Now that the movie is out and people are talking about it and all the positive response we're hearing is, I think we're gonna see a lot more. Once the box office numbers come out and they see this independent film crushing up against Indiana Jones and these big films from Hollywood, I think that people are gonna be like, ‘I gotta go see this movie.’
Lewis warned that Human Trafficking is happening all over the country and even in our own back yard. That’s when he turned around and introduced our reporter to someone who has decided to take on that fight right here in North Idaho: Angie Sedore.
Angie Sedore (Middle)
Sedore founded a non-profit called Safe Harbor For Freedom in 2021 which aims to “end modern day slavery in our society by providing education and awareness, housing, rehabilitation & reintegration services for victims of human trafficking.” Since the non-profit’s founding, she has met with local leaders in law enforcement such as Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris to “discuss ways to connect with the police department and offer solutions […] to combat human trafficking and provide vital resources to victims.“ One of the non-profits she has been in touch with is Ballard’s Operation Underground Railroad.
At the Wednesday afternoon showing of Sound of Freedom, Angie was given the opportunity to address movie goers, in an effort to raise awareness and raise funds for a planned safe house for the victims of human trafficking.
“Human trafficking is a $152 billion industry worldwide. 94% of the victims are female, and 54% of all human trafficking happens in North America. With the US being the leader in this statistic, Safe Harbor's goal is to be able to provide safe housing, to be able to provide one-on-one counseling, trauma-informed counseling, medical treatment so that we can heal survivors from the root issue so they can thrive in this life and never be victimized again. Currently we are working to towards two very specific goals. One of them is to have a care plan in place and a strong curriculum for these survivors so that they can go through their healing journey and be successful on the other end. And our second goal is to either purchase or build or have a house donated so we can have a safe house for survivors. One of the issues worldwide is that there is not enough places for survivors to go. And so we are actively working towards these two goals.“
Sedore announced that Safe Harbor will be holding a “ladies night” fundraiser on August 10th at the Rosemary Manor Winery, as well as a 5K run, on September 30th called The Run Against Trafficking at Riverstone Park at 10:00 AM.
The Idaho Tribune will make more details about these events available in the future.
Much like Sedore, the director of Sound of Freedom Alejandro Gómez Monteverde, said in a recent interview that “our number one goal is to raise awareness because a lot of people they don't even know that this story exists. How can you become a solution if don’t even know that this problem exists in the first place, right?”
He said to himself “let's go to Netflix.” But Netflix passed on the movie. He brought the film to Amazon for streaming on Prime, and they said “this is not for us, and they passed well.” Monteverde added that many more studios passed on the movie for over three years.
Why? Why would film studios pass on such a wildly popular movie?
Convicted Sex Criminal and Hollywood Film Producer Harvey Weinstein.
Because many of them are in on it.
In a gut-wrenching April 2021 interview, Jim Caviezel shared the struggles that they had to overcome in the production of this movie, as one by one, major Hollywood executives attempted to shut the project down. Watch:
Maybe the whole “Pedophile Island” plot point of the movie hit a little too close to home for those Hollywood types.
The extent of human trafficking, child sex trafficking, and sexual blackmail intelligence operations are enormous, and frankly unfathomable. From the Franklin child sexual abuse scandal of the late 1980’s which alleged that corrupt Republican lawmakers were sexually abusing children, to the NEXIVM child sex trafficking cult, to Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement, to Jeffrey Epstein’s child sexual blackmail operations, the rot is pervasive.
And guess what? The media isn’t reporting on it.
The American Intelligence apparatus isn’t investigating it. The Justice Department isn’t prosecuting it.
Instead, many within these organizations are either attempting to get in on the exploitation whether it be for their own perverted sexual fetishes, or for leverage via blackmail.
Many of our leaders are compromised by that material.
When Epstein was first caught and tried for child sex trafficking, after recruting young women, who recruited other young women like a ponzi scheme was not properly investigated, charged, or prosecuted. Instead, his prosecutor, Alex Acosta, gave Epstein a “sweetheart deal,” agreeing “to a benevolent non-prosecution deal, aggressively pushed by Epstein’s powerhouse attorneys. Epstein pleaded guilty to a state charge of soliciting prostitution, paid a fine, registered as a sexual predator and served 13 months of an 18-month sentence. No federal charges were filed.”
Human trafficking is real, and it’s here in Idaho.
Whether it be illegal aliens and slave laborers in the south, or child-sex-trafficking gangs bringing minors to Coeur d’Alene swingers clubs…
This is not some far-off distant problem, and unlike the corporate media, we can’t be bought off.
If you have information about organized human trafficking in the Pacific Northwest, no matter how powerful or well-connected the person may be, we will protect your identity. We will report on this growing problem. We will shed light in the dark places that everyone else chooses to ignore.
