Not My Life
Not My Life | |
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Directed by | |
Written by | Robert Bilheimer |
Produced by |
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Narrated by | Glenn Close |
Cinematography |
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Edited by |
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Music by | |
Distributed by | Worldwide Documentaries |
Release date |
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Running time | 83 minutes (2011 version) 56 minutes (2014 version) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Not My Life is a 2011 American
Filming of Not My Life took four years to complete, and documented human trafficking in 13 countries: Albania, Brazil, Cambodia, Egypt, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Italy, Nepal, Romania, Senegal, Uganda, and the United States. The first and last scenes of the film take place in Ghana, and show children who are forced to fish in Lake Volta for 14 hours a day. The film also depicts sex trafficking victims, some of whom are only five or six years old.
Fifty people are interviewed in the film, including investigative journalist
Not My Life addresses many forms of slavery, including the
Themes
Not My Life is a documentary film about
Not My Life calls attention to the fact that, in the United States, the sentencing for human trafficking is less severe than for drug trafficking.[6] The film indicates a relationship between contemporary slavery and globalization.[7] It asserts that most human trafficking victims are children,[8] although the filmmakers have recognized the fact that millions of adults are also trafficked.[9] The film depicts human trafficking as a matter of good and evil, provides interviews with survivors of human trafficking, and presents analysis from anti-trafficking advocates. Throughout the film, Robert Bilheimer encourages viewers to personally combat human trafficking.[2] Bilheimer was sparing in his use of statistics in the film, feeling that overloading viewers with figures might numb them to the issues.[10]
According to Nancy Keefe Rhodes of
Contents
Fifty people are interviewed in Not My Life,[17] including Katherine Chon of the Polaris Project,[18] investigative journalist Paul Radu of Bucharest, Vincent Tournecuillert of Terre des hommes, Iana Matei of Reaching Out Romania,[4] UNICEF Director of Programmes Nicholas Alipui,[19] Susan Bissell of UNICEF's Child Protection Section, Antonio Maria Costa of UNODC, Somaly Mam of the Somaly Mam Foundation, Molly Melching of Tostan in Senegal, and Suzanne Mubarak, who was First Lady of Egypt at the time.[5] The sex trafficking victims shown in the film include children as young as five and six years old.[20]
Not My Life begins with a black screen on which the words "Human trafficking is slavery" appear in white.
In Zoha Prison in Romania,[24] there are interviews with traffickers serving prison sentences that the film suggested were too short in light of the severity of the crime of human trafficking.[2] The typical sentence for this crime is six or seven years, while the sentence for trafficking in drugs is normally twenty years.[4] Two Romanian traffickers, Traian and Ovidiu, attest to having starved,[25] punched, and kicked the girls they trafficked.[4] Ovidiu recounts a story, in an interview filmed in February 2007,[24] about kidnapping a prostitute and selling her for sex when he was 14. He expresses no remorse for these actions.[4] The sentences served by Traian and Ovidiu were short enough that, by the time the film was released, they were no longer in prison.[6] Ana, a girl they trafficked, is also interviewed in the film, saying that she lost a tooth in one of her beatings. She describes being pregnant at the time, but not telling this to her captors because of fears for the unborn child's safety.[25]
Radu is interviewed in this portion of the film, as is Tournecuillert, who speaks about his experiences in Albania, where he heard about the sex trafficking of girls and how some of the girls would be shot or burned to death as a warning to the other girls.[4] He describes how Albanian girls are often rounded up to be sexually trafficked in Italy. He further explains that, normally, before they leave Albania, the traffickers kill one of the girls in front of the others—usually by burning or shooting—to demonstrate what will happen to others who try to escape.[26] Matei adds that, for the sake of amusement, some of the girls would be buried alive with only their heads remaining above ground.[4] Eugenia Bonetti, a nun, speaks about her work helping girls escape from slavery in Italy.[14]
Another interview is with a Wichita, Kansas woman named Angie who was prostituted with another girl, Melissa, in the American Midwest[24] when they were teenagers. Angie recounts how they were expected to have sex with truck drivers and steal their money.[27] She describes an incident when, after Melissa found pictures of a man's grandchildren in his wallet, they realized he was old enough to be their own grandfather. "I wanted to die," she says, close to tears.[27] Outside the film, Bilheimer said that Angie's trafficker expected her to engage in forty sex acts a night,[28] and threatened to kill her if she refused.[26] "It's not just truck drivers," FBI agent Mike Beaver says. "We're seeing them purchased and abused by both white collar and blue collar individuals."[24] This statement segues into a Washington, D.C., scene wherein two girls in their early teens are shown by a curb on K Street, changing into prostitutes' attire.[24]
Angie was rescued during Operation Stormy Nights, an anti-human-trafficking operation carried out by the FBI, in 2004.[28] Bilheimer said that, while there is no way of being certain how many girls like Angie are being sexually trafficked in the U.S., "diligent people out there have arrived at a bare minimum figure of ... one hundred thousand girls, eight to fifteen [performing] ten sex acts a day" adding up to "a billion unpunished crimes of sexual violence on an annual basis."[29]
Another American victim of sexual trafficking,
The next scenes in the film depict
In Guatemala City,[32] Guatemalan trafficker Efrain Ortiz is shown being arrested, and the film indicates that he was later given a prison sentence of 95 years.[6] Ortiz had two sons he had been using for waste collection and five daughters he had been committing incest with. Bilheimer accompanies IJM representatives Pablo Villeda, Amy Roth, and Gary Haugen as they and the local police arrest Ortiz; he is charged with exploitation of children and violence against women. Ortiz looks surprised as he is handcuffed.[32] Haugen, President of IJM, went on to be named a Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Hero in the 2012 US DoS TIP Report.[28]
Grace Akallo, a Ugandan woman[17] who was once abducted by Joseph Kony to be used as a child soldier[26] in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA),[22] is interviewed, saying that "this kind of evil must be stopped."[3] She was forced to kill another girl as part of her initiation into the LRA, a very common practice among armies that employ child soldiers. The film states that she was ultimately rehabilitated and became a mother.[26]
Bishop Desmond Tutu, who Bilheimer had previously interviewed for The Cry of Reason, appears towards the end of the film,[33] saying, "Each of us has the capacity to be a saint."[34] Bilheimer included Tutu in Not My Life because he felt that audiences might be in need of pastoral counseling after watching the film.[26] The final scene of Not My Life returns to the boy holding his breath underwater in Ghana. His name is revealed to be Etse, and it is stated that he and six other trafficking victims shown in the film have been rescued.[10] Some of the last words in the film are spoken by Brazilian human rights advocate Leo Sakomoto: "I can't see a good life while there are people living like animals. Not because I'm a good person, not because it's my duty, but because they are human—like me."[31]
Production
Background
The project that became Not My Life was initiated by the executive director of the UNODC,
Bilheimer accepted Costa's proposition,[21] and subsequently wrote, produced, and directed Not My Life[2] as an independent film.[19] Bilheimer, who had received an Academy Award nomination for The Cry of Reason,[6] said that "the unrelenting, unpunished, and craven exploitation of millions of human beings for labor, sex, and hundreds of sub-categories thereof is simply the most appalling and damaging expression of so-called human civilization we have ever seen."[35] Bilheimer's wife, Heidi Ostertag, is Worldwide Documentaries' Senior Producer, and she co-produced Not My Life with him. She said that she found making a film about human trafficking difficult because "people do not want to talk about this issue." Bilheimer found that the connections he had made during the production of A Closer Walk were also useful when producing Not My Life because the poor and the outcast are at the greatest risk of both HIV/AIDS and human trafficking; there is, for this reason, much overlap between the groups victimized by these two afflictions.[21] Bilheimer attempted to fashion the film in such a way that every part of it would illustrate a statement made by Abraham Lincoln: "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."[36]
When making this film, Bilheimer held that a contemporary abolitionist movement did not yet exist. He described his purpose in creating the film as to raise awareness and initiate such a movement.[1] He also wished to communicate to his audiences that not all human trafficking is sexual.[26] Traffickers "commit unspeakable, wanton acts of violence against their fellow human beings," he said, "and are rarely punished for their crimes."[3] Production of Not My Life was supported by the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT), UNICEF, and UNODC,[37] providing Worldwide Documentaries with $1 million in funding secured by Costa.[21]
Filming
Bilheimer said that the level of cruelty he saw in shooting Not My Life was greater than anything he had seen when documenting
Filming of Not My Life took place over four years[2] in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America[3] documenting human trafficking in thirteen countries: Albania, Brazil, Cambodia, Egypt, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Italy, Nepal, Romania, Senegal, Uganda, and the United States.[10] Shooting in Ghana took place over four 18-hour days, during which the film crew had to travel over washboard roads in Land Rovers and did not sleep.[21] Filming in Svay Pak took place in March 2010,[32] and shooting in Abusir, Egypt took place the following month.[39]
In Guatemala, Bilheimer facilitated the arrest of trafficker Ortiz by renting a car for the police to use, in order to film the arrest as part of Not My Life.[28] Bilheimer said that, during the making of the film, he and his crew were surprised to discover that traffickers employ similar methods of intimidation across the globe, "almost as if there were ... unwritten bylaws and tactics ... The lies are the same."[26]
Editing
Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, and Dave Brubeck performed the theme song for Not My Life, Bob Dylan's "Lord Protect My Child", which was produced by Chris Brubeck.[40] After the initial screenings in early 2011, the film went through a series of revisions, taking into account information gathered from more than thirty screenings for focus groups. Later that year, the narration was completely rerecorded;[34] Bilheimer replaced Ashley Judd's voice with that of Glenn Close,[38] who had previously worked with him on A Closer Walk.[41] The version of the film that was aired by CNN International was shorter than the version shown at the premiere.[34] An even shorter version, only 30 minutes long, was created with school audiences in mind.[21]
Content relating to the Egyptian
As had occurred with Bilheimer's previous film, A Closer Walk, Not My Life had several preview screenings before its official release.[42] The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) hosted a preview screening at the Willard InterContinental Washington in September 2009 as part of a day-long symposium on human trafficking.[27] A preview screening in Egypt, including the material shot in that country that was later removed,[34] took place in December 2010 at the International Forum against Human Trafficking in Luxor.[5]
Later that month, on December 15, the film's cinematographer and co-director Richard Young died. Not My Life was subsequently dedicated to him.[43] Bilheimer said that Young had believed in the film far more than he himself had.[44]
Release
The film had its official premiere in Alice Tully Hall
Not My Life was screened at the 2012 UNIS-UN Conference in New York City, the theme of which was human exploitation.[49] Segments from the film were included in "Can You Walk Away?",[50] a 2012 exhibition on contemporary slavery at President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home in Washington, DC.[51] A hotel chain presented the film to its staff in London in preparation for the 2012 Summer Olympics to raise awareness about the types of human trafficking that might take place in conjunction with the events.[21] Bilheimer initiated an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in 2012 to allow local organizations opposing human trafficking to screen the film.[34] That same year, he expressed a willingness to release fifteen-minute excerpts from the film to help its message reach more people.[52]
In a 2012 interview, Bilheimer said that he considered A Closer Walk and Not My Life to be the first two installments in a trilogy; he intended to make an
Throughout 2013, the
In May 2014, the Somaly Mam Foundation released a statement that Somaly had resigned from her leadership of the organization as a result of investigations regarding allegations about her personal history.[58] The following month, Bilheimer released a statement in response, saying that he had re-edited the film in order to remove the scenes depicting Somaly and that the new version would be available shortly. Bilheimer wrote that "the storytelling in the Cambodia segment of Not My Life remains intact and is still very moving, with an even sharper focus, now, on the girls themselves."[59] In this statement, Bilheimer requested that people screening previous versions of the film tell their audiences that the presence of Somaly in the film is understandably a distraction, that the film is not primarily about Somaly but rather about the millions of children in slavery in the world, and that this focus is what is most important about the film.[59]
For the 2014 re-release of the film, Bilheimer added new content relating to India, including an interview with Kailash Satyarthi, founder of the non-governmental organization Bachpan Bachao Andolan which opposes child labor.[60] This content emphasizes that there are more human trafficking victims in India than in any other country in the world.[61] The new version of the film, which was co-produced with the Delhi-based Riverbank Studios,[61] is 56 minutes long and premiered at the India International Centre in New Delhi on June 26, 2014. Satyarthi was one of the panelists in a panel discussion accompanying the screening, as was Indian filmmaker Mike Pandey, who had managed Riverbank Studios' side of the co-production.[62] The film was scheduled to air on Doordarshan (DD) in Hindi three days later.[60] In July, Bilheimer called his continued work on the film "a labor of love" and said that "far too much silence still surrounds the issue" of human trafficking.[61]
Reception
At the USAID preview screening, actress Lucy Liu, who has worked with MTV EXIT and produced the documentary film Redlight, said that people who watch Not My Life "will be shocked to find [human trafficking] is happening in America"; she said that there were 80,000 women being sexually assaulted daily and she called human trafficking the "cannibalization of the planet's youth."[27] According to UN.GIFT, before Not My Life, there was "no single communication tool that effectively depict[ed] the problem as a whole for a mass audience."[5] Susan Bissell, UNICEF's Child Protection Section chief, agreed with this assertion,[21] and said that the film "takes a close look at the underlying causality that so many other filmmakers have missed [and] it will change the way we see our lives, in some very fundamental ways."[6] She also said that Not My Life is an important documentary because it brings attention to underreported forms of abuse. A reviewer from Medical News Today praised the film for "raising awareness and speaking about taboo subjects," arguing that these activities "are critical to empower families, communities, and governments to speak out honestly and take action against abuses."[19]
Lucy Popescu of CineVue called the film "a powerful indictment of the global trade in human beings and the abuse of vulnerable people," but criticized the film for focusing on human trafficking victims, arguing that the perpetrators should have been dealt with more prominently. She commended Bilheimer on the few interviews with traffickers that he did include, but she condemned as inadequate the "only passing reference to the thousands of men who engage in sexual tourism, like those who travel to Cambodia to 'buy' traumatized children who they can then abuse for weeks at a time." Popescu also called the film "simplistic", arguing that it should have more clearly expressed that sex trafficking victims are not able to provide legitimate consent for sexual activity because they are afraid that their lives might be in danger if they do not comply.[2] John Rash of the Star Tribune called the film "a cacophony of concerned voices speaking about a modern-day scourge." Rash praised the film for its global scope, but suggested that this geographical breadth allows American audiences to ignore the fact that the trafficking of children is prevalent in the United States and not just in other countries.[22]
Not My Life was named Best World Documentary at the Harlem International Film Festival in September 2012.[63] Nancy Keefe Rhodes of Stone Canoe called it a "highly-distilled ... remarkable film," describing Bilheimer as "committed to strong story-telling and film-as-craft."[10] She commends Bilheimer on alternating between American sequences and scenes in other countries, allowing "the experiences of young women with whom an American audience may more readily identify [to] become one among many woven into the fabric of global trafficking."[24] Tripurari Sharan, Director General of DD, said that his organization was pleased to air the film and hoped that doing so would bring about greater awareness across India about human trafficking in the country. He called the film "both an eye-opener and a profoundly moving call to action".[60]
Notes
- ^ Bilheimer has a long history of work with faith-based projects,[14] and his father, Robert S. Bilheimer, was the member of the World Council of Churches (WCC) who initiated the Cottesloe Consultation, which saw the WCC meet with South African church representatives to challenge the religious basis that had been put in place to justify apartheid.[16]
References
- ^ a b Caitie Daw (March 2, 2009). "Director speaks on human rights". The GW Hatchet. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g Lucy Popescu (October 2011). "Special Feature: CNN's 'Not My Life'". CineVue. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e Lynette Holloway (October 23, 2011). "Documentary Exposes Modern-Day Slavery". The Root. Archived from the original on June 23, 2012. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Rhodes, p. 6.
- ^ a b c d e "not my life" (PDF). United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 21, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
- ^ Need to Know. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
- ^ a b c Armand F. Pereira (January 16, 2011). "Not My Life: Globalization and Modern Slavery". The World Post. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
- ^ "Not My Life". United Nations Association Film Festival. October 22, 2012. Archived from the original on October 3, 2013. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
- ^ "Screening of Not My Life Documentary by Prevention Project Students". Richmond Justice Initiative. October 29, 2012. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Rhodes, p. 1.
- ^ a b Rhodes, p. 13.
- ^ a b Rhodes, p. 14.
- ^ Rhodes, p. 12.
- ^ a b c Rhodes, p. 15.
- ^ Rhodes, p. 16.
- ^ Rhodes, p. 32.
- ^ Do Something. Archived from the originalon October 21, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
- ^ "Katherine Chon". Worldwide Documentaries. Archived from the original on July 3, 2013. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
- ^ a b c "Child Trafficking Film Premiere Spotlights Grave Child Rights Abuse". Medical News Today. January 21, 2011. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e Rhodes, p. 4.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Gary Craig (October 21, 2012). "Oscar-nominated local filmmakers tackle sex trafficking". Democrat and Chronicle. Retrieved August 17, 2013. (subscription required)
- ^ a b c d John Rash (August 3, 2013). "Dehumanizing human trafficking on, off screen". Star Tribune. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
- ^ "Not My Life – 2011". Counter Trafficking in Persons. April 4, 2013. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g Rhodes, p. 8.
- ^ a b "Traficanti romani de carne vie, intr-un documentar CNN". Ziare (in Romanian). October 23, 2011. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
- ^ Connecticut Public Radio. Archived from the originalon September 21, 2013. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Cindy Von Quednow (September 21, 2009). "Lucy Liu and Others Advocate Against Trafficking Sex, Domestic Workers". Kansas City infoZine. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Rhodes, p. 7.
- ^ Rhodes, p. 46.
- ^ Rhodes, p. 9.
- ^ a b Rhodes, p. 10.
- ^ a b c d Rhodes, p. 5.
- ^ a b c d Rhodes, p. 35.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Rhodes, p. 3.
- ISBN 978-1466947030.
- ^ Becky Anderson (October 26, 2011). "Documentary Highlights Horrific Practices of Modern-Day Slavery". CNN International. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
- ^ United Nations Regional Information Centre. March 6, 2012. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
- ^ a b c Rhodes, p. 55.
- ^ a b Rhodes, p. 2.
- ^ "Lincoln Center World Premiere Features Dave Brubeck". Carriage House Studios. January 31, 2011. Archived from the original on September 10, 2014. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
- ^ Sai Gon Giai Phong (in Vietnamese). Archived from the originalon June 1, 2011. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
- ^ Rhodes, p. 25.
- ^ Rhodes, p. 43.
- ^ Rhodes, p. 52.
- ^ a b Liza Jansen (January 21, 2011). "Movie "Not My Life" aims to inspire global fight against human trafficking". Xinhua News Agency. Archived from the original on October 19, 2014. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
- ^ Rhodes, p. 38.
- ^ Rhodes, p. 39.
- ^ "Not My Life". JD Marlow. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
- ^ "Ausbeutung geht jeden an". op-online (in German). March 22, 2012. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
- ^ "Can You Walk Away?: A Special Exhibit at President Lincoln's Cottage". National Trust for Historic Preservation. February 15, 2012. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
- ^ Rhodes, p. 58.
- ^ Rhodes, p. 40.
- ^ "Robert Bilheimer". Worldwide Documentaries. Archived from the original on November 10, 2013. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
- ^ "World Affairs Councils of America Programs". World Affairs Councils of America. Archived from the original on July 6, 2013. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
- ^ "Day 4: Sun 11 Nov". Oaxaca FilmFest. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
- ^ "Schedule". Frontex. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
- ^ "13 – 17 February 2014". Pasadena International Film & New Media Festival. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
- Somaly Mam Foundation. Retrieved September 27, 2014.
- ^ a b Robert Bilheimer (June 3, 2014). "Not My Life Statement Regarding Somaly Mam". Worldwide Documentaries. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 27, 2014.
- ^ a b c "DD to Broadcast Award Winning Documentary on Child Trafficking". Deccan Chronicle. June 27, 2014. Retrieved October 2, 2014.
- ^ a b c Rakesh Kumar (July 4, 2014). "Lending a Voice". The Statesman. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 2, 2014.
- ^ Ved, Mahendra (July 12, 2014). "The Modern Slaves". New Straits Times. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
- ^ "2012 Award Winners". Harlem International Film Festival. Archived from the original on August 20, 2013. Retrieved August 11, 2013.
Bibliography
- Rhodes, Nancy Keefe (2012). "Not My Life: Filmmaker Robert Bilheimer's Latest Meditation on Good and Evil" (PDF). Stone Canoe. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
External links
- Official website
- Worldwide Documentaries, the distributor
- Not My Life at AllMovie
- Not My Life at IMDb
- Not My Life at Rotten Tomatoes