Latest / Surviving-ISH Podcast / Kelly Galindo: 26 seconds (sex/human trafficking)

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Kelly Galindo: 26 seconds (sex/human trafficking) · Surviving-ISH Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: In every dark tunnel there's a glimmer of hope.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: In every painful moment there's a strength to heal.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Surviving Podcasts.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Y'all give or have those moments when you get validation that you're doing something right, that you're on the right path, and this moment is one of those for me.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I haven't now met a new friend.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Her name is Kelly Galindo and she will be introducing herself, but we were connected through a listener who was a follower of someone else named Platform, and I literally have chills right now with what we've discussed.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: She is in the TV industry.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: She's in the production industry the song I'm Every Woman.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: We are about to meet the woman who is every woman.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Kelly, I'm obsessed with you, I told you before we record.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: The next time you see me, I will have a shirt that says I heart Kelly.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: So nice to meet you, david, and thank you so much for having me on your platform, and I know it comes from a sad way we got together, which is my friend, doug, who had his own platform.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: He was an ex-scientologist and he talked a lot about the trauma and abuse as a kid from growing up in Scientology and the brainwashing that the Scientology had done to him and his experience and guess that he had on.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: But I don't know if your listeners know, but Doug passed two days after he had interviewed me and so my heart's broken.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: We lost a great human being that was doing so much good in the world.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: He's on to better pastors.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Doug was just so supportive and was so real.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: So real, like no bullshit and you won't take bullshit yeah.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like when I made a comment to him of how I got edit my show, he was like I hardly do that, I don't give a damn.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Like this is real, true, authentic, and I loved and just admired him and the survivor community.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: The world lost somebody.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: That that is just amazing.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: But, like you said, he's off to bigger, better things.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: And but in honor, to celebrate him, we're here and I will link the the episodes that you've done with him, because you did several, two or three Like there was my third interview with them.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'll share all those links too.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: But so, kelly, like I, get caught up in my head and laugh in a joyous way of how people who have true kind hearts will take the time to introduce or celebrate someone else before they even actually introduce themselves.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: And that's just what we just did, right.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: But you're doing some amazing things, so just shift this off into what we're going to talk about today, but take a few moments and introduce you.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Okay, my name is Kelly Galindo.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I've been a professor for in film for about 20 years now.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: It's unbelievable how fast time goes.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Prior to that, I was in the industry as an actress and director.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: I'm still directing, but I don't act anymore, and that's how I met Doug at the actor studio.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: We're members of the actor studio and that's why Doug actually had me on a show, because about the similarities of the trauma that the girls that are traffic have as children Prior to even getting traffic like I would say, 9.5 at a 10 were molested as children, before they were even traffic.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: The damage is already done in terms of their confidence level and their value of themselves.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: So, anyways, but Doug want to interview me for his show just because of the similarities of trauma that happens as children, and I know that that's what your show is about.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: So I've been now on my project.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: It's called 26 seconds.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: That's a statistic every 26 seconds of child's traffic globally and, to be honest, we don't really even know the real numbers.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Because we don't know the numbers, because they traffic online now, not just in red light districts the internet we don't know what the real numbers are, which is pretty scary, very scary, and but I started this in 2016.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I had seen a episode on Dateline that talked about sex tourism and I was just.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: I was sick to my stomach because basically it gave pedophiles and they were like Westerners, australians, europeans, americans but it gave them a green light to fly to Thailand and to be able to rape children without getting caught, without getting in trouble.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: So I was like this is crazy, we have to create awareness about this.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: So I went to Thailand and Cambodia and I came back and did a short it was called 26 seconds, did really well, I won like over 20 awards and we got distribution on small distribution like Google Play, itunes and Amazon Prime.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: But then after that, when I went to Thailand the organization that I partnered with they were also in Laos, philippines, dominican Republic, nepal, india.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: They were everywhere.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: I'm like holy crap, this is global.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: So I had made arrangements with them to be able to film with them in India.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: So, long story short, I came home from that trip in 2016.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it was just 2016.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: And I went to my church.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: They had a human trafficking ministry and there was a pastor there.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: His name is Pastor Kevin Brown.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: He's actually in my future.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: He does work both here in Orange County.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: He rescues girls.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: I know you're from Tennessee but literally, because Orange County is a very affluent neighborhood, harvard Boulevard, which is where Disneyland is girls are being trafficked.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: That's three miles from us.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: No one knows that this exists in rich, affluent Orange County.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: What happens, what I've learned through the research on my project, is that traffickers they cross state lines because they're going to eventually, they want to stay on the move, but they because they want to keep the girls disoriented and dependent on them and they want to be in control.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: But they also go where the money is because it really is all about money, money at the expense of the vulnerable women and children.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: I think even what your show's about.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: I think abuse is at the expense of the vulnerable People.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: That are abusive are bullies.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: They're like if they had it done back to them, they would back off so quick that they're actually they're bullies and they're pussies.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Really that are and that's how most.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: I don't want to call a pimple pussy, because I think they're not.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: I think that they're very ruthless, but that is a pussy to beat up a woman.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: So what A big man can beat up a woman.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Does that make you feel great Anyhow.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: So when I came home, I met Pastor Kevin and he was talking about rescuing Yazidi and Christian girls in Iraq and I said you got to take me.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: So I went to Iraq with him and I kept filming.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: So I basically was filming when I wasn't teaching.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: I was filming in the summer and the winter breaks and then during the summer excuse me, during the fall and spring semester I was filming in Orange County because it was closed.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: I was either in Bakersfield or LA, orange County, san Diego, the Tijuana border in Las Vegas.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: So I filmed all that when I was here, but big trips when I go to India or East Africa or Mexico, that was during the summer or the winter break.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: So, long story short nine countries.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: I did not plan on that.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: It was supposed to be a short and only so nine countries.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: And then we wrapped in 2018 in East Africa and I came home and I started stringing all the interviews together and I had to bring in interpreters because we had to translate everything.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: That took a year for nine countries.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Then the pandemic hit and then we can talk about this, because I think that was abusive to the whole, to everyone worldwide, but anyway.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: So then the pandemic hit.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: It was supposed to be two weeks.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: I went two years and we weren't allowed to even be on campus.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: So during that time and this is when I was talking a lot with Doug but I created the YouTube channel just to create awareness about the issue, to market 26 seconds and also to highlight some of these nonprofits that are doing incredible work in rescue, restoration and reintegration because it all wasn't going to fit in my feature.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: It just wasn't.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: So then, after that pandemic, I went back to school and I started editing the feature and at first I thought it was going to be like 15 minutes of each country.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: I was going to put all the countries in one feature film.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: But I started with Iraq and when I was watching the footage I said there's no way I can just do 15 minutes.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: That was specific.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: That was genocide of Yazidis and Christians and it was ISIS trafficking girls.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: It wasn't like a third world country and in red light districts and massage parlors and like all the rest of the countries that were over poverty.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: It wasn't that.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: It was extremist terrorists that were committee genocide on a group of people and they treated these people like dirt.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: If they thought that you're not a believer in our God so we can do anything to you.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: That was their mindset and out of all the interviews, I think that the ones from Iraq were they were the most horrific.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: What ISIS did is it's barbaric and it's unbelievable, so anyway.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: So I did the feature on Iraq.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: It took us a year to edit and, thank God, we got just distribution right away.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: It's on Epic TV and now I'm resting for a bit.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: But we I have an executive producer who is looking for investors to invest in doing a doc series on the US only.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: So that's our next move is to do a doc series on the US only.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: I think it would be shocking, for not only nationwide but worldwide, and I don't think people know that it exists A fluent, rich orange County.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: And it comes to these high production industries, which is a lot of times sports like the Super Bowl.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: I filmed at the Minneapolis Super Bowl in 2017.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like I was mind blown when you had mentioned, you know, a, and what I love about you is your approach on things.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: You were not degrading anybody for the fact that Jaila was a 50 year old woman that could dance on the pole, because I'm in my 40s and not one day in my life have I've ever been able to do what she's done, or Shakira.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: But the fact is, when you're doing it in a place that is affiliated with something, that is giving permission, and so it's not to knock down the women that are proud of their bodies and talented at what they do, it's the permission that is giving to other people that they may not even be aware of.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: I was more outraged with the NFL for allowing that they ultimately have the final say.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: So Of sure.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you and 100%, and you made that so clear.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: But the point of me saying that is I've had so many people reach out to me and saying I truly didn't know hate crime existed until I heard your story, and so sometimes it's those eye opening moments.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: And for someone like me who I'm going to watch the halftime show when Reba is on singing the national anthem because I follow Reba and everything of it, but that's as far as I get with a sport right, so that means I shut off with that.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: But the point that you're making is there are so many things behind the scenes that we don't know, and so listening to your interviews or where you've talked about this the past few weeks, like I had no clue.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're slowly.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: It's all in entertainment, especially with rappers and singers, more so than actors, but it's all throughout entertainment where they use artists to get their agenda and met.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: And right now, after COVID, in the last eight years I'm it is very and I don't think I'm the only one very difficult to have any kind of faith or trust in the government period Very hard.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: I don't think I'm the only one that feels that way.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: You're definitely not alone there.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Because, for me, my whole world is about sex trafficking of young girls and children.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: That's been my world since 2016.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Now, and when I see that they led in millions of people that they're not vetting and there's 125,000 children missing from the border, then that tells me the government knows what's going on and basically using our tax payers money to fund this criminal endeavor because, at the end of the day, they're making money off the backs of children.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: No, I'm not happy about that.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: People.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: We, the people.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: The only way things can change is when we show up at the voting polls.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: But it's not just about a party.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: It's not that you need to read the laws that are being presented in front of Congress and the Senate, because it's us that has to vote in certain politicians that are standing behind that issue to get passed.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: We need to be more educated because it's about changing the law.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: One person the president doesn't do that.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: We, the people, do, but it's us voting in the right person.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: So bottom line is I'm hoping that the last eight years, I've woken people up to get more educated and savvy about what's the government doing and where can I step in Like, for instance, the mothers and they're calling them terrorists.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: They're not terrorists.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: These are their children.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: But these mothers now are going to they're much more aggressive about going to these they're not called PTA meetings.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: So these meetings at school to make change, right, that's what it takes.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: It takes us, we, the people at the little level, and it grows, but we have on every so and bottom line is this we're only one person.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: We only can be passionate about one or two things in your life.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: You gotta let someone else do another area because it's just, it's a full-time job, right?
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: So let the mothers take that and then let you know whatever right you can take yours to another level of abuse and bullying and, worse than that, hate crimes, because I see it on the news all the time of hate crimes being done and nothing really is happening.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Whoever is passionate about whatever you're passionate about, be loud.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Be loud about it.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: This was the conversation that I had with my mother is.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: She was like if they want to call me a terrorist, because I'm going to like I will wear that with a badge of honor, you know, like the intent is for the good.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: So if that is a terrorist, my mom was like call it.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: My sister called me and she's been like, very conservative and very religious her whole life and anyways she's never done a thing wrong.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: So she calls me up and says I went to her daughter.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: My niece is some kind of teacher meeting.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: She's there to support her daughter.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: But the grandkids right, she was and I'm on a terrorist list now.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: And I started laughing.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: I go, mom's going to be so proud of you.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: So this is the perfect segue into the documentary 26 Seconds.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I, what I love about it is so when I first watched the trailer, when I learned about it through Doug's episodes with you and Mandy it's in so many different languages, right, there's so many and so when I first hit play, there was that moment of me, which I think is just natural of I'm not going to understand a word of this, and the reason why is only because one of my favorite times to listen to things like that is when I'm getting ready and I put it on the Bluetooth in my bathroom.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: I'm not able to read it but the reason I say that is the experience that I had is I didn't have to know what language they were speaking and what they were saying.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: I heard the pain.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: I knew what was happening and I listened to it while getting ready.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: I can't tell you verbatim at that moment, because I watched it.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Of course, while listening to it in that first moment, I didn't even have to know what verbatim word they were saying.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: I heard the pain, I heard the fear, I heard the passion, I heard the need, I heard the want.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: I heard all those things.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh my gosh, this is brilliant.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: Well, I also wanted to, because when I filmed in countries, of course the girls speak their language, but usually the HT experts or the NGOs, they speak English.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: So I liked that.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: So it would go from English to the language, to English to the language.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: And then also I'm heavy because I was a dancer and choreographer, so I'm big on music, so I put in music too, so that there's constantly either visual, audio, english and then back to the other language.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: So it's constantly a moving piece and then you find the story within that, because people are now their attention spans are TikTok people.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: Now it's more than 30 seconds or like.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: So you have to make it move.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: What did you watch?
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: The short the Cambodian Thailand.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Correct, yeah.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Which is pretty short.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: Anyways, that's only seven minutes 43 seconds but, like the feature is 50 minutes long, 5-0.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: So you have to make it where it's moving and, of course, indie style documentaries feature.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: Doc, it's 50 minutes, 55 minutes.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: It's gonna move slower than a seven minute 43 seconds short.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: And so I have watched both oh you did.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: But when I was getting ready in the bathroom and I was like, oh, this is seven 10 minutes, I was like, perfect, this is all I needed in my bathroom time.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: That's why I was gonna sit in my bathroom.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Time Was for the all.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: But my point of that is it was so beautifully done that because I had that moment of okay, I need to pause this and find something else, because I want to give this my full attention, because I'm so passionate about this as well.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: But I didn't have to Like it was just so brilliantly done.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Oh, thank you.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: I'm glad you feel that way, cause that was the goal for the audience to keep them intrigued beginning to end, so they can get the whole message.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well, at least with me nailed it, like I immediately was just your passion and your heart.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: I can tell and it's not a gift that I have.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: I think many of us can tell when someone is after clout and money versus when someone is after getting this message out.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and even in the seven minute reel I could hear the blood, sweat and tears that you and your team put into this.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: And so, immediately, before I even knew this, I was like what has she been through?
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: And you've even been open and honest that you have not physically went through this, but you have still seen things happen.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: And can we talk about that, for?
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: a minute Absolutely, because the passion that you have with, it is just so amazing Because people that's one of the questions they always ask is what made you want to do this documentary?
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: And it was a couple of things.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: One is when I started this, I was 52.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: And once you get past 50, you weren't.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Because it doesn't matter what project you work on, whether it's a bullshit, comedy, drama, theater, film, album whatever you're working on, it demands commitment and time, no matter what.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: So when you're past 50, you're like oh, I'm not giving my time and commitment to bullshit, you're only going to do something that matters in life.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: You just can't.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: You can't do bullshit after 50.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: So that was one of the reasons.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: The other is that, being a professor in film, I had access to film equipment and editing, so I knew it would cost me less than if I was not at a film school.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: That's one of the rules and regulations of the college is that you only can use the equipment when the students aren't, which is summer and winter when they're not there.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: So it worked out perfect, but anyhow.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: But lastly, into your question, because people always ask what made you want to do this Were you trafficked?
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: No, I was not trafficked.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: And I shared this with Doug and I said but Doug has an actor because I started young.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: You're exploited and you're treated badly emotionally.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: To be honest, I have a little bit of the whole Harvey Weinstein thing.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: When that came out I was like I've met a million of those guys.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: At that time he might have been the most powerful, the most rich, but I met 1,000 of those guys.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: That wasn't news to me, that's not a news flash, but I also know because I was an actress, meeting these men at dinners and you want and that carrots being swung in front of you to have a better career.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: No one forced me up against the wall, no one raped me.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: It's a carrot.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: You have to say yes or no.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: So I'm not crazy about women that wanted to further their career.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: So they said yes and then 20 years later are pissed off about it and want to bring the man down.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: No, if he raped someone.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely wrong, whoever it is, obviously.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: But a lot of these women were not raped, it was a carrot and they said yes for the career.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: And then they come after them.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: I'm not down for that because I've witnessed I've been in nine countries filming little children that have been trafficked.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Those actresses are not trafficked.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: They're exploited, pressured, bullied.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: But you still can say yes or no and I'm sure there are some cases where they were raped and then I take my comments.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Don't use my comments for that particular.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Sure sure.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Obviously Okay, but the majority, you have a choice.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: So I'm not crazy about these girls blaming men 20 years later when they could have said yes or no.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: But they wanted to further their career, especially because of what I've all the interviews I've done and I went and it's exactly what you're talking about.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: The abuse that happens to these children.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Something shuts off some of them in third world countries where their poverty is so severe.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: Their own parents will sell them and they don't really think anything's wrong with it because they're trying to survive.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: So that trauma is done.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: So young and especially kids here in the United States in the social care system, when they get shoved out of the system, pushed out at 18, they have no parents, no money, no education, and then some they call them Romeo pimps.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: Some young kid acts like their boyfriend gives them attention, they just want to belong, and they also out of survival like they don't.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Where are they going to live, where are they going to eat?
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: And so they act like their boyfriend for about two to four weeks, if that.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: And then they take their phone away, they take their passport away, whatever they have, and they push them out on the screen and say, oh, you're making my money back and then they start the abuse where they'll beat them if they don't, they starve them.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: But those are children, especially the ones that get trafficked when they're two, three, four, five, six, up to 12 years old.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: So what I want to create awareness about is that, first of all, there's been a shift.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: 20 years ago they thought of women as prostitutes period, not as victims.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: That has shifted because those kids are trafficked when they're children and then they grow into women in that life.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: So if they're trafficked at 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and now they're 18, and now you're going to treat her like she's a prostitute, like it was a choice no, it was not a choice.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: So the anyways huge difference between exploitation and trafficking.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: So, no, I have not been trafficked, but I was definitely exploited and so I have a soft part for these and I just felt I befriended them and felt like one of them and they could feel that.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: And I noticed that too when I would shoot undercover with the NGOs that I partnered with, because some of them were like ex-johns.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Or his name's Pastor, doug Bennett.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: He's amazing, but he was a John at one time and now he became a pastor and then he created Mac Dylan, hope and Baker Shield.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: He rescues girls, he restores them, he reintegrates them and when I was shooting undercover on the streets with him, you would think the girls would trust me.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: They'd come up to me.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: No, they'd walk right past me and go right up to him and go Doug.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: So there is this awareness of who's from the street and who's not.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: And it's the same if somebody was lecturing you about getting sober, but they've never been drunk.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: You're not going to listen to them.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: You only can take from someone that's been there the effect.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: You only can affect someone if you've been there and I saw that over and over again with these girls.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: You would think I'm a woman, that they, oh they did not trust me at all, like I had to prove myself.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: But they trusted Doug because he'd been from the streets.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: But he also his actions now backed up what he said.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Do you know what I mean?
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: He was a John, he was in addiction and he was a liar.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: And see your actions back up.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: His actions as a pastor now backs up what he says.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: He does and these girls trust him.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Are there misconceptions on what sex trafficking is?
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Because we want to put things in buckets, right.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: So what is it that you've learned through your research, your journey, your hands on with these people?
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: That the people who only have the media as a resource is mislad on.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: What I've learned most is number one survivors are.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: For years they were treated as prostitutes, as, and they weren't.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: They were victims.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: So I'm really happy that's changed.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: But what I've learned is survivors are resilient, they're smart, they just like any kid.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: They need guidance and they need to know someone cares.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: So there's all these amazing organizations that not only rescue, but organizations that restore them, and it's major Like they have to go through.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: I forget what it's called, but it's trauma therapy.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: There's a name for it I forgot.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Anyways, they have to go through trauma therapy.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: But what I also learned because some of the NGOs one was Pastor Doug.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: He used to be a John, now he's a pastor.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: Annie LaBear, who I love.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: She is an organization called Hookers for Jesus and she was a call girl in Vegas and now she has a rescue home where she rescues girls in Las Vegas and also restores them.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: She's a restoration home.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: She's amazing.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: And then also Armin King, who was actually a pimp in the 80s or 90s and he's gone to prison.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: He's paid his dues, but he is also a Christian now and he has an organization called Paving Great Futures and what that organization does is he mentors, gang members who don't have fathers.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: So they were victims too.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: They had no fathers.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: The only thing they knew if you weren't an athlete an athlete, what did he say?
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, an athlete, a singer, dancer or a pimp Like those were your choices as a black man to get out of the ghetto.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: And so they were victims, too, of poverty and no father figure in the home.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: Blah, blah, blah Anyhow.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: So he has this organization where he not only mentors these kids, but he has a culinary school where he teaches them a trade where they can make money doing something besides pimping.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: I have a few survivors that were really mad at me that I befriended Armin, but I don't know Armin the pimp.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: I know Armin, who I met as an NGO, founder of this Paving Great Futures, doing great work in the community anyhow.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: So back to your question what have I learned?
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: What I learned was we are all no one's perfect, and we have all done things that we are not proud of.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: But every day we have a choice to choose light or dark.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: Every, and no one can make us.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: It's our own choice, right, and when you choose light, you do great things in the world.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: When you choose darkness, shit follows.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: You know, that's just it.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: You know there's a spiritual.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: It's like gravity.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: You know if you drop something it's gonna drop and fall and break.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: There's spiritual gravity.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: You put out good comes back.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: You put out shit comes back.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: It's just, that's it.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: It's really simple, right.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: So I've learned, though, that there's people and, just like I said, when I went out there to rescue, the girls didn't trust me, but they trusted Pastor Doug, just all of Armand's boys and the gang, because I went to film at the culinary school and they didn't trust me, but they can trust him.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: He's been there and back and he proves to them every day that he shows up and he keeps knocking on the doors to get money for his organization to get these kids free culinary schooling, so they get off the street.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: But those are the real heroes, ordinary people, right.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: That I've learned, and I think that's a good message to put out in a film, because we all have stuff we're not proud of and what happens, and this is the beauty of filmmaking, it's why people go to the movies.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: When they watch a film and go ah, I'm not alone.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: They've thought that, they've said that, they've done that, just like me, right?
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: This is the whole, that's the beauty of filmmaking, yeah go ahead.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, please go ahead.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: And what else have I learned?
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, and the most disturbing of all is that it's really coming from the top, just like when you go for the little neighborhood drug dealer.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Where's it really coming from?
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: It's the same thing with trafficking, and it comes from the political elites and from the top, and it's really scary.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: They're allowing it, they're turning the blinds off.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: When I was in the Red Light District in India and in Thailand it's actually illegal.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: Prostitution is illegal but yet there's this huge it's called the non-applauding.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: It's five stories high and it's lit up like Vegas neon on steroids, and so it's clearly in plain sight, and police turned a blind's eye.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: They're either being paid off by the madams or they're letting them come in to sleep with these girls, so they turn a blind's eye.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: That's what the government's doing with 125,000 children missing at the border.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Are you kidding me?
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: They're turning a blind's eye.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: So, what is?
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: scary.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: It's terrifying.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: Terrifying.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: What can we do, in your opinion, to when you hear of the NFL or when you hear of the people that you voted into office, the people that you're supposed to trust doing these things?
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: How do you really dive deep in research that to learn the truth?
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: Because we get so torn with those.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: I think we're in a time of very critical crossroads and time and I think a bunch of whistleblowers need to come out, because there is no healing in darkness, only in light.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: So it all has to be exposed.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: The person has to be exposed.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: They got to need to do an investigation, they got to take them to court, they got to either put them in jail or put them in a mental institution, whatever is wrong.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: This needs to be heavy, loud, hard, and everyone in Hollywood and in the political sphere should be worried if that happens.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Man I've learned so much from-.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: There's no healing in the darkness, none.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: There's only healing in the light.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: What I'm about to share I understand does not touch this right, but it's just to try to relate is when my hate crime happened it was election year and it was election year for the judges and the local high profile people and it wanted to be swept under the rug.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: And it was so easy to be swept under the rug that the only media release you can find after multiple was released exposing the true story as things were coming out about my hate crime the only one you can Google and find is the very first one where they blamed the victim.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: They blamed me and told me that I took him home for sex and I got beat up because I tried to sleep with a straight man, and a gay man should not be in a straight facility.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: This is the path on a small scale, guess what Guess what.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: You and David, if this was, if you were black and that gentleman was white as he was, it would have been all over the papers.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, fucking all over.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: There's an agenda they want to push and it's not for the people, it's for them to stay in power.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: They don't care about people.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: They don't care about people.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: And that was my point too, is if Little Town Knoxville boy me could have a story enough to where local politicians are like sweep the sun under the rug, and that became a priority.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Imagine, if little Omi was able to influence that, what someone on a higher stance would, which means, as you get bigger and that's terrifying.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: I think that unless they were born into a family and they witnessed it their whole life.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: But I think when people get into politics they're not all corrupt.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: It happens slowly when bribes are being at you.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: Just this Kerry Lake release that was on in her own party was bribing her.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: She recorded the conversation.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: She was saying people back east, how much will it take but to get you out of the race?
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: On their own side, the Republican Party wanted her out of the race and they were going to pay her and she said what?
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Not $20 million?
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: You could never.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: But there's not many people like that that will stand up to corruption.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: They slowly, I think, for Bernie Sanders was bought off.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: They told him to step down so that Clinton, there's people controlling the puppets and it's pretty scary.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: But what I care about is that it's controlling what I care about now, after this whole COVID thing, is there controlling our health For, not for the betterment, and they're controlling children being trafficked and taxpayers are paying for all this to happen.
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: This is crazy.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: This can't be happening in America.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Are you?
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: kidding me.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: And I truly cannot wrap my mind around it, and there's a part of me that's amazing, that I can't.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that is true.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: But there's the other part of this, but I want to be able to be a part of the stock.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: I want to be able to stand up and be that.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: I have learned researching you, watching you, and people ask me what true allyship means, like you are the definition of that and I want to thank you for that.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: The fact that you don't have hidden agendas.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Your agendas are right there.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Your agenda is this has to stop.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: You were not a victim of this, but you are a voice for the voiceless and you're the voice for the people that don't have platforms, that cannot speak out.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: You do not have the agenda of how does this benefit me, other than how does this benefit us, and say those people, and I love that.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have to.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: I even tell my friends I have a couple of friends that you know that's me crazy, but they had five and six kids Anyways.
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: And she's all Kelly, I could never do what you do and I, of course not.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: You're raising five and six girls.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: So my point to my friends and family, and even whoever hears me speak, is that we all have different gifts and influences, right, and you, and use those like you're, you have a platform so you can expose stuff through your platform.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: I'm a filmmaker.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: I can expose it through filmmaking.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: Someone might be an attorney.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: They can defend whatever right.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: You can offer your gifts and talents.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: And I tell my, because I have friends that are very wealthy I said give money to these organizations that are doing great, and I don't mean the big ones like the Clinton Foundation, and no, they built six houses out of all those millions of dollars that were given to them in Haiti.
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: So no, but they're small organizations that are really doing.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: They're in the trenches, doing the hard work and they're nonprofits.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: So they need the money to continue rescuing and restoring girls.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: But it doesn't have to be that you could be passionate about something else, whatever it is, you don't have to do the same job as someone else.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: Do you?
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: Do you start with where you're at, what you have to offer?
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: So I wanted to take that moment that we just had.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you what I see is that allyship and, as a minority, as a lead, with a white man, as, being a white man, I'm leading with the coming from an upper middle class, but then you find that I'm gay and in a lot of places that bumps me way down, and so to hear people take allyship and that word so seriously, regardless of what it's about, is so meaningful to me and powerful.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: So I wanted to thank you for that and I want to thank you because I know we didn't really talk about what your podcast is about, which is abuse, and I want to share this before we sign off, because you went through it yourself, from your hate attack and then getting into a recovery and I do want to share which we talked about briefly prior to the interview starting.
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: But boys are trafficked too, just as much as girls, and that goes to you talking about they want to put it in buckets like they want.
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, human trafficking.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: Well, human trafficking is also labor trafficking.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: I always have to clarify because otherwise the statistics are wrong.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: I said mine's on sex trafficking, but then there's statistics of sex trafficking just of children.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: There's statistics of sex trafficking of women and children.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: There's statistics of human trafficking, which includes labor trafficking, just nationally, then internationally, like it's all these buckets right, which is crazy.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: So I'm very specific because my statistics are every 26 seconds, a child is trafficked globally.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: So it's not a woman, that's a child.
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: That's the statistic for a child.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: But I want you to know that because we spoke about it briefly, the HOPE project.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: He was molested as most of my survivors 9.5 were molested prior to ever being trafficked, but he was molested and trafficked by his own father and then he had a life of addiction for years and years homelessness, and he was from an upper middle class Midwest home.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: And so, long story short, when he got sober and he needed help, he knew that boys don't talk about being molested or abused.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: So he created this great organization called the HOPE project and it's like an AA meeting, but it's just for men that have been molested and abused or trafficked and it just gives them permission, like we talked about earlier, gives them permission to go.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: This did happen and it is wrong.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: So I so commend you for your podcast, because that's what it's about is giving a voice to the voiceless and it's about giving permission that what happened to you mattered.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: What happened to you was awful, but what?
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: And ending on a light note, what would you want to do?
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: But what you do with that right?
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: Pastor Doug was a John.
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: He was addicted to pornography, and Billy, and he was a John because he was molested by his older brother when he was a kid, so he was trying to prove that.
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: So there's abuse that happens, and then whatever addiction it manifested it could be sex addiction, it could be pregnancy, pornography, it can be whatever right Drugs, alcohol, whatever.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: And then there's this, and then you hit rock bottom and then you need to go and talk, and most men and boys were never taught or encouraged to speak about that.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: So thank God for your podcast, thank God for the Hope Project.
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: It's a YouTube video that I have on my channel and it's called Boys Are Traffic 2, if anyone would like to look up.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: Yes, and I have flagged to share the link on.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: Okay, great, yeah, so please, your audience is welcome to.
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: My videos on my YouTube channel are free.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: There's trailers, there's videos.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: The short is on there so you can see the short.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: That's not on there, though, is the feature, because that just got released on Epic TV, so that's on Epic.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you sent me the link to it and, oh my gosh.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: So you're like, you're doing the work, you're doing such great things and to even get to, of course, I've seen you in interviews.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: I see your passion, I see your personality, but to actually experience it myself and your time is just exactly what I needed.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: So what I would love to ask you to end on is obviously making this documentary doesn't hasn't put out your flame Like I can tell it's only been fuel to your fire.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: Is what do you have going on next?
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: That, whether it's part of this or what?
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: That?
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: It's still part of 26 seconds.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: So I'm gonna, like I told you earlier, I'm going to, I'm gonna rest for a bit and then, probably summer, start post production on the US Doc series only.
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: So all the footage that I shot in Southern California it's actually going to be called sex trafficking in the Southwest because Vegas is in there in Bakersfield, so it's not just Southern California, but anyways.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: So I'm going to do the doc series because that gets out to a bigger audience, because the whole goal was to create awareness.
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean and I've done.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: I'm very proud of the short winning so many awards.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: I'm very proud that the features on Epic TV, but it's still not being seen by the masses, you know.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: And so this executive producer I'm working with she's going to pitch it to networks and hopefully only because then that's more awareness being created.
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: But I'm only doing the US Doc series.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: Then I would still need to do.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I'm going to do separate features for each country I don't know until I get in there and see or if I'm going to do one more feature and then include all the rest of the countries.
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: So I don't know.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: But I know I'm on this project for a while.
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember when I first started, one of my student interns goes oh, you'll be on this project about 10 years.
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: I go what?
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: No, three or four, and it's already been 2016, 2024.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: That's eight years, isn't it?
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's going to go past 10.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: Anyways, in my defense, two years was null and void because of the pandemic.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: Absolutely In my defense.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: I'm a parent of.
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: But anyways.
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: So that's what's on the agenda.
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: I do think, because I'm getting older now, I want to pass that torch to my students and let them, because I'm 60 now and so when this is done I may be retiring and moving to Nashville.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: I think I've done my part for humanity.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: At that point your viewers can obviously go to my website.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: Put it in the description.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: It's 26secondscom and you can find everything on there.
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: But on the homepage, if you scroll down to it, says subscribe to YouTube.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: Click on that and it'll take you to my YouTube channel and you can watch all the videos there for free, the shorts on there, and then, of course, also put in the Epic Time link if they wanted to rent the feature from Epic.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: I want to extend my deepest gratitude to our incredible guests for sharing their transformative journey with us today.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: Join us next week as we dive into the healing process and share more incredible stories of triumph and resilience.