Sound of Freedom: ‘Every scene has light piercing the darkness’ of child sex trafficking
Heather Hamilton
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PROVO, Utah — Those behind the Sound of Freedom film said they know the topic of child trafficking is a difficult one, so their goal was to weave light throughout the film in order to leave audiences with hope.
Sound of Freedom, which is releasing in theaters on July 4, details the true story of how Tim Ballard, a then-federal agent, quits his job and risks his life to journey into the jungles of Colombia in an effort to save a girl, the sister of a recently rescued 7-year-old boy, from sex slavery.
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“The greatest challenge was the subject matter. It’s very dark to kind of be able to digest it,” writer and director Alejandro Monteverde told the Washington Examiner. “How to go into this odyssey into the heart of darkness in a way that the audience can joyfully go into it because in the end there is joy in hope.”
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“Light in this film is one of the main characters,” Monteverde added. “When I was writing the script, I realized that even in the hardest, in the lowest points in our lives, there is always light piercing the darkness. So, in the film, every shot has light piercing the darkness.”
Ballard said he is so grateful that the film is reaching the big screen so others can experience how important efforts to end child trafficking are.
“I’ve done so many operations through my life, always wishing while I was on the ground that people could see it,” Ballard told the Washington Examiner. “People don’t want to believe it that children can be sold this way and that there is that much evil in the world, and there is.”
“The dream of being able to use my eyes as a window into these operations is coming true,” Ballard shared. “People get to see what I saw and I experienced, and I hope that turns into a great light that can be the great disinfectant to this dark, dark plague of child sex slavery.”
Monteverde said he was drawn to telling the story because he saw the problem of child trafficking but also saw another problem in that “good people knowing about this darkness and doing nothing about it.”
The film also features Jim Caviezel from The Passion of the Christ, Academy Award-winner Mira Sorvino from Mighty Aphrodite, and Bill Camp from 12 Years a Slave. The film is produced by Eduardo Verastegui.
In addition to continuing to run rescue operations, Ballard leads Operation Underground Railroad, which provides avenues for people to get involved in the fight against sex trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Angel Studios, the film’s distributor, is calling for 2 million people to purchase theater tickets to represent the 2 million trafficked children across the world.
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Tickets for the film may be purchased or paid forward using Angel Studios’s “Pay It Forward” software, which allows people to purchase tickets on behalf of others.
Sound of Freedom follows the box office shocker biblical film His Only Son as Angel Studios’s next theatrical release and next project to gift tickets in “pay-it-forward” fashion.