Reply to Sound of Freedom - What are they up to?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/07/sound-of-freedom-child-trafficking-movie/amp

I think the Vanity Fair article likely paints the most accurate description of what’s going on with this movie.

In short: the actual filmmaker wanted to tell a story and raise awareness about trafficking. He didn’t aim to lionize the unbeknownst to him controversial Ballard.

Ballard and others co-opted the film and politicized it.

The filmmaker has refused to go on any outlet that politicizes the film.

[b]That doesn’t mean the actual film is a Q Anon crazy film…it just means some crazies are glomming onto it and using it to promote their agenda. [/b]

FTR: all human trafficking is bad. And this is a dangerous weird hill for Dems to seemingly dig in on since the Rs can easily spin this anti-film stance into pro-trafficking.

I haven’t seen the movie and don’t plan to. I don’t need to watch a film to know trafficking is evil. But I’m stunned by the politicization on BOTH sides. [/quote]

It's more than that. The film is about lies and mistruths. I don't doubt that the original guy with the glimmer of an idea that had nothing to do with Ballard wasn't politicized or poorly motivated. Sure. But then the move became [i]about Ballard[/i] (instead of the first story he came up with), which is as much a problem as the subsequent politicization. It became inherent in the subject matter.

This is all from your link -- the very one you included above:

[quote]But according to Erin Albright, an attorney and longtime adviser to anti-trafficking task forces, [b]Ballard and OUR aren’t actually central to the international fight against human trafficking.[/b] “The majority of the [anti-trafficking] field views them as fringe,” she tells me. [b]“They peddle sensationalism…and they fundraise off it.”[/b]

In 2018, when Monteverde was making his movie, these critiques weren’t part of the conversation. “I never in a million years imagined that this would be political,” he said of the film, [b]which would become a Ballard biopic—albeit one that takes great liberties with the facts.[/b] After all, he says, “I saw the piece [on child trafficking] on the mainstream media … I always thought that this was going to be a film that we would all come together over.”
...
Several critical things happened in the years between the film’s wrap and its arrival in theaters. In a series that kicked off in 2020, Vice journalists Anna Merlan and Tim Marchman began a probe of Ballard and OUR, discovering “a pattern of image-burnishing and mythology-building, a series of exaggerations that are, in the aggregate, quite misleading.” In a subsequent report, they alleged Ballard and his organization [b]had engaged in “blundering missions—carried out in part by real estate agents and high-level donors—that seemed aimed mainly at generating exciting video footage.”[/b] (Ballard has not yet responded to Vanity Fair’s requests for comment. Though a representative from Angel Studios initially proposed an interview with Ballard, they later said they were unable to reach him to arrange a meeting.)
[/quote]

It seems to be about money, as well as glorifying the fraud Ballard.

[quote]According to Harmon, there’s little difference between selling a physical product like the Squatty Potty and “selling seats for a movie.” That seat-selling strategy is arguably one of Sound of Freedom’s most controversial elements. After Angel bought the film’s distribution rights, the company added a call to action to its credits. It encourages patrons to help “raise awareness” of child trafficking—but[b] instead of donating to anti-trafficking groups or even directly to Ballard’s efforts, patrons are asked to “pay it forward” by purchasing additional tickets for the film.[/b] “We don’t have big studio money to market this movie, but we have you,” an out-of-character Caviezel says before a QR code appears onscreen.[/quote]

Also,

[quote]... “These people say that they care about trafficking,” says Alfaro. “But at the end of the day, you’re sitting there calling trafficking survivors pedophiles and traffickers because they don’t agree with this film.”[/quote]

The politicization ALSO victimizes the real victims. But as above, that's not all that is problematic. [/quote]

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