In Chains: The Art of Freeing Girls from Sexual Slavery (Clint Brewer)

I have seen so much of our world over the years but each new trip brings more understanding that there is so much left to see, experience and understand. As a Photographer i am drawn to the creative, the inspiring, the moments in life that can draw people out of their shells and reveal their true character. But when i come into contact with something that is not pretty, happy or easy to swallow my attitude towards how i react has changed.  I don’t want to pass it off and let someone else deal with it because it is not my area of expertise; i am now incapable of wanting to do something about it.

The problem with being an artist is that many times, a painting, film or photograph doesn’t actually help someone. It can paint a picture of reality but if no one sees it then what is the point. It can be skewed so that people see the depravity of the world, or it can show the hope and redemption that awaits. I don’t want to be an artist who makes images of depravity, who shows the worst of the world in the most beautiful of ways. Have i done this before? Absolutely. But those are not the images i am proud of, the images that tell the true stories. If I come to believe that just showing poverty and pain will lead to any sort of change, i am dead wrong and quite frankly, wasting my time.

As artists and creatives our responsibility is to use our abilities to tell a story that moves the viewer, a story that transcends the moment the image was taken and shares the potential for joy, love and life.

I am in the planning stages of a documentary with friend that will focus on the rampant issue of Sex Trafficking, specifically in Nicaragua. Throughout the past year we have both been exposed to this issue in recent trips to Central America and have come to the conclusion that we must act and use our gifts to tell a story. Not a story of pain and despair, though these feelings may come, but of the hope and redemption that can come transcend through these horrible circumstances.

We have decided to film primarily in Nicaragua because of the unbelievable stories of heartbreak, and redemption we have found there. In 2008, there were only two human trafficking convictions made, an increase from zero convictions in previous years. Because Nicaragua is a country plagued with political turmoil, natural disasters and poverty it is the least developed nation in the western hemisphere. Because of this, most women are uneducated and when a husband leaves or dies are forced to fend for themselves and take up prostitution to support their family, many times even selling their own daughters into the Sex-Trade to help pay the bills.

What’s more heartbreaking is that children, five years old and younger, are being sold by their families into this industry.  These young girls are rented to men to be raped and abused.  I have met a six year old girl who was chained to a wall for months because she refused to have sex with a man. This is not uncommon to these victims and is something that the world needs to understand.

So why this project, why in Nicaragua? We don’t feel it’s right to see evil like this and for those with means to not take action against it.  What we do is make films, so we are making a film to paint a picture of the reality of these victims.  We wanted to make this film in order to help support and rescue the women and children who are both literally and metaphorically chained to this life.

We have found that in the middle of the poverty, despair, pain and anguish there are things at work that are changing not only the lives of the women involved but the system in which it takes place in.  There is an organization in Managua that is successfully rescuing women and children from a life of prostitution. The are empowering them to survive and support their families by other means than selling their bodies. They are giving them not only skills, but Hope.

This is a story of heartbreak, of horrible fear, of unimaginable pain, and of Hope.  Sex trafficking is an issue that can be solved, it’s being solved one individual at a time, we just need to keep fighting the fight.

In Chains: Freeing Women and Girls from Sexual Slavery from 617 Production Group on Vimeo.

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We I ask you, please consider sponsoring this project.

We only get funding if we meet our goal 100%, and we feel this is a story that needs to be told.  You can help. You can help by talking about this with your friends, doing your own research and helping fund this film. But i know that the work only starts if the funding starts and we start filming. We need support and encouragement to come alongside the women and tell their stories of HOPE.

Please help us share about this project: www.InChainsFilm.com

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Clinton Brewer Photographer out of Dallas focusing on working with non-profit organizations and ministries to help tell the stories of the work being done. clint@clintonbrewer.com