Bigfork filmmaker sheds light on sex trade

Slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865, but the latest work of Bigfork’s Academy Award-winning producer Jerry Molen shows that millions of people around the world and some in the United States are still held against their will.

“The Abolitionists,” a documentary, will be shown at Cinemark Signature theater in Kalispell on Thursday at 7:30 p.m..

Executive producer Molen worked with directors Chet Thomas and Darrin Fletcher to shine a light on Operation Underground Railroad, which is run by retired federal Special Agent Tim Ballard, who spent a decade rescuing children from the child sex tourism industry for the U.S. government before he started his own nonprofit.

“The film basically is a visual journey into the terrible world of child sex trafficking,” Molen said. “It mainly shines light on this terrible travesty that goes on and is happening around us.”

Ballard set up Operation Underground Railroad in December 2013 after his retirement from doing similar work with the U.S. government, where he found that red tape and bureaucracy left many children falling through the cracks.

His organization involves former trained special forces soldiers and special agents who buy children who are enslaved, primarily in the sex trade. Film crews catch the buys on camera and the evidence is turned over to authorities, who then arrest the perpetrators.

Molen, the award-winning producer of “Schindler’s List” and other major successful films, said he hopes that some good can come of the 90-minute documentary.

When filming for the documentary had ended, 57 children had been rescued through Operation Underground Railroad, according to Molen. In the more than two years since the group was founded, around 400 children have been rescued and 100 perpetrators sent to prison.

Ballard’s team has lots of work left to do. There are an estimated 27 million people who are trafficked or enslaved each year, with 2 million of those being children.

The International Labor Organization estimates that the industry is worth around $150 billion.

“If we can create this awareness and get it out to enough people, then maybe we can turn the spigot off,” Molen said.

Molen hopes the show will sell out and the local theater will be inclined to show it again.

Tickets can be bought online at www.cinemark.com. Tickets are $11.50 for adults, $10.50 for seniors and students or $9.50 for children.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.