The trafficking survivor-vetted film list is a project led by hundreds of survivors around the world

In 2022, an extremely harmful and inaccurate film about human trafficking was about to debut. When asked what alternative films about human trafficking were recommended, trafficking survivor, journalist, screenwriter, and “retired” child actor, Sabra Boyd, realized there wasn’t a comprehensive list.

Sabra set to work with other trafficking survivors around the world to develop a list of survivor-vetted films that accurately and sensitively depict different aspects of human trafficking, and the spectrum of vulnerability and exploitation that traffickers prey upon.

Far too often, people with no lived experience or expertise of human trafficking produce, direct, fund, and write films about human trafficking, dramatically shaping the public’s misunderstanding of this issue. This misinformation shapes policies, legislation, funding, policing, and services that directly impact real victims of human trafficking.

The human trafficking survivor-vetted film list is periodically updated and voted on to include new films from around the world. We have robust discussions if any survivors disagree with a film being included in the list. Let us know if you have a movie suggestion you’d like us to consider reviewing to add to the list.

Interested in a screening event?

Interested in hosting a screening event with trafficking survivors?

Let us know if your venue or organization is interested in hosting a screening, led by survivors with professional experience in the film industry as writers, directors, performers, consultants, crew, and filmmakers. We adeptly guide audiences through the content of films about human trafficking with panels, Q&As, and other interactive components that celebrate the power of storytelling centered on the perspectives of those with lived experience.

How To Credit This List

This list of survivor-vetted films about human trafficking was created and curated by the trafficking survivor community around the world, led by Sabra Boyd, an independent writer and consultant with lived experience of human trafficking. Please note, Sabra is the only named survivor due to very violent harassment from Sound of Freedom fans and safety concerns. Please contact Sabra Boyd with any questions. 

How to Support

Sabra Boyd led this initiative unpaid, so if you’d like to donate or contribute to a mutual aid fund for survivors that also helps fund writing workshops for human trafficking survivors, here’s a Venmo link

Suggested Action Items

There are many ways to support trafficking survivors, but the primary suggestion I always recommend is listening to survivors and hiring us as consultants while using the National Survivor Network’s toolkit for ethical survivor engagement practices. 

Love 146 also created a list of great suggestions for people who want to do something. For example, if you’re good at cooking, consider cooking for your local homeless shelter; if you’re a nurse or a doctor, consider offering health checkups with a local street outreach organization; if you’re good at taxes and accounting, volunteer at a local DV shelter; if you’re good at writing resumes, volunteer at a local organization that serves immigrants or foster youth.

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About This List

This is a list of survivor-vetted movies about human trafficking (documentaries, series, and scripted features) in no particular order. As survivors around the world add suggestions or veto films from the ballot, this list may change, so please check back for updates. Feel free to share this survivor-centered resource widely, and please note that most of these titles are triggering.

We have tried to compile a list of films that highlight the root causes of human trafficking which include housing, disparity, poverty, immigration policy, incarceration, racism, transphobia and homophobia, misogyny, the stigma that trafficked boys and men face, familial child trafficking, MMIP, police violence, religious abuse, child marriage, reproductive rights and access to healthcare, and many other intersecting factors.

Please contact Sabra Boyd if you have any questions or concerns. If your theater or community group would like to meet with a survivor leader consultant, please reach out as there are many trafficking survivors around the world who would like to help facilitate these conversations. Because trafficking survivors don’t need to be saved, we need to be listened to. We don’t want anyone to “give a voice to the voiceless” because we were never voiceless to begin with — we have voices already and we just need to be listened to. 

Ending trafficking is a community effort, not any single person’s “heroic savior” role. Otherwise we risk a dangerous vigilante mindset that embraces a paternalistic, condescending stigma that paints survivors as permanent victims, revoking their agency and autonomy to tell you what they really need –– that agency and power to make your own choices is the very same thing that traffickers take away. 

At its core, human trafficking is the exploitation of vulnerable people –– because traffickers prey on vulnerabilities. If we build infrastructure for things like housing and healthcare access, it will make everyone less vulnerable, safer, improve your quality of life, and is the most effective prevention and intervention method for human trafficking. 

Few people have more expertise on the social determinants of health and intersecting vulnerabilities than trafficking survivors. So please, listen to survivors. All survivors. We are not a monolith, and we all have different expertise and skills, so please listen to all of us. Survivors have never needed anyone to give us a voice, as one Sound of Freedom producer condescendingly said in an interview. Survivors have never been voiceless; we just need to be listened to.

Thanks!

Sabra

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How can I suggest another movie?

If you’d like to add a title that isn’t on the vetted list, please fill out this form and it will be included in the next ballot for survivors around the world to vote on including.

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