Filmmaker Guy Jacobson and The K11 Project Battle Child Prostitution - Page 2

In 2004, Jacobson and the film crew went to Cambodia to begin shooting. "We were stupid and didn’t realize how dangerous doing this film project in Cambodia was. As trafficking and child prostitution is very profitable business, there were many that would benefit tremendously if we didn’t make the film." The production, which includes the international cast of Ron Livingston, the late Chris Penn, Virginie Ledoyen, and Udo Kier, was challenged by the Chinese mafia, local organized crime, brothel owners, and the government, the police and the military, who wanted them to leave. The production had to be protected by over 40 guards with automatic weapons during the entire shoot. The film was shot in K11, the district notorious for its pedophilic offerings that the project took its name from. Many scenes were shot in actual brothels.

Critically acclaimed, Holly has been making its way through the film festival circuit, filling to capacity (and often overflowing) the venues in which it has been shown.

Holly is the initial film to be released from the K11 Project to raise awareness for The Redlight Children Campaign. In addition to Holly, the K11 Project contains under its banner the two documentaries, The Virgin Harvest, which documents the experiences of child sex-slave survivors, and The K11 Journey, which gives a behind-the-scenes look at the entire K11 Project. This is the most complete film project on the issue of child sexploitation to date.

This human rights campaign was started to give people the knowledge to fight sex-slave trafficking, to raise awareness so that countries will create and, more importantly, enforce stricter laws on those who commit these crimes and to help decrease the problem by decreasing the demand. "If no one is willing to pay money, or there are less people willing to pay money for all the different forms of child sexploitation, then by definition, the supply would decrease".

"Now you can’t say you don’t know, you can only say that you don’t care", Jacobson says is one of the mottos of the project. He hopes that by intertwining the K11 Project with the grassroots Redlight Children Campaign, the decision to act, once knowledge of this epidemic is more widespread, will be an easier one. "The Redlight Children initiative has specific action items that fall into three categories: what new laws need to be passed, how to better enforce current legislation, and how to allocate resources in a better and more proportionate way to deal with the problem."

Article Author: Courtney Walker

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