CAS @ Unchosen Film Festival - Bristol

Ctrl.Alt.Shift's Luke Harman reflects upon his experience at the Unchosen Film Festival [1] in Bristol - which uses the media of film to raise awareness about human trafficking, here and around the world...

As I entered Bristol's jam-packed Colston Hall, the sounds of laughter over glasses of wine on a cold November night seemed the wrong kind of atmosphere for an evening based around human trafficking. It turned out however that the main attraction was actor Rob Brydon in the main hall and that the 'Unchosen Film Festival' was hidden away in one of the many winding corridors...

Nevertheless, the message of the festival hit hard - "Trafficking of girls for sex slavery is happening here" read the poster in the film hall; dispelling any thoughts that this is only a problem on foreign shores.

"We have had to turn girls away... this is embarrassing"

The feeling and passion for this project was highly apparent during the introductions - first to speak was Denise Marshall from the Poppy Project, set up in 2003 to provide accommodation and support to women who have been trafficked into prostitution or domestic servitude. It has 54 bed spaces in houses nationally. Marshall’s voice close to cracking as she explained this is not enough: "We have had to turn girls away... this is embarrassing."

Following on, Jatanil Banerjee took to the mic: "God says if something wrong is happening he will change it. As victims of sex trafficking we are asking, when?"

A performance of traditional Indian singing followed, accompanied by a beat on an early Massive Attack record that left the audience awestruck.

One film, Understanding Trafficking [2], flicked between stories of girls from Nepal and Bangladesh who'd been trafficked into India and tells how they "were made to toil in the field all day and sexually abused at night."

It confronted a number of the complex issues surrounding trafficking such as the apparent ease at which girls can move across unmanned borders. Also the simplicity with which a girl can be bought from a family for hotel work only to be exposed to the seedy underbelly of the business from an early age, and assimilated into the sex trade aged as young as 13. The film also looked at the willingness of some families to sell their children knowingly into prostitution.

The star of the film was Juhi, an 18 year old girl pulled by her mother from a safe house in India just before her 18th birthday in an attempt to re-sell her back into the sex trade. She talks with stark and powerful openness about her experiences, the lies her family told her and the fear she felt at returning to a life of prostitution.

"You cannot return to that childhood anymore. That land is lost forever"

Juhi was saved and wants to become a lawyer to fight trafficking and protect girls like her. This powerful resolve and hope is a striking contrast to a film that leaves you unable to ignore the complexities and difficulties of combating human trafficking and the everlasting affect on the children involved.

"You cannot return to that childhood anymore. That land is lost forever."

Words: Luke Harman

For more information on the Unchosen Film Festival 2010, please click here [1].