With fictional child, a fight for millions

Friday, April 11, 2008
By DANIELLE FURFARO, Staff writer
Times Union (Albany, New York)

When Guy Jacobson found himself standing among a gaggle of young Cambodian girls, all aggressively trying to sell him sex, the purpose of his life changed.

The New York City attorney and investment banker, who was on sabbatical and traveling the world, knew he couldn't simply go back to his job and pretend nothing had happened. He had to take a stand.

So Jacobson began a film project to highlight the plight of those girls, who he would learn were among more than 2 million children working in the sex trade across the globe.

That film is "Holly," a powerful fictional tale of an expat American (Ron Livingston) who tries to save one Cambodian girl from the clutches of sexual assault at the hands of tourists. The film also stars Chris Penn in one of his final performances before his 2006 death.

Tonight and Saturday, Jacobson will answer audience questions after 6:35 p.m. screenings of the film at Spectrum Theatres in Albany. This week, he spoke by phone with the Times Union.

Q: What got you interested in making this film?

A: I was on sabbatical backpacking around the world for two years. About six years ago, I was walking down the street in Cambodia. All of the sudden, I was surrounded by girls who were very aggressively soliciting me for prostitution. One of the little girls said, "I yum yum very good. If not, my mamma boxing me," meaning she'll get beat up if she doesn't get any business. I started paying more attention to this issue, and realized it is much more prevalent. I was horrified to find out this is not an isolated thing, but a global epidemic affecting over 2 million kids, some as young as a year old. This is happening from Albany to New York City, to every city in every country in the world.

Q: Do you have a history of activism on other issues?

A: I've been involved in activism on a variety of issues all my life. The thing is, you have to, I believe, take a stand even when it's not your people who are affected. If someone wants to discriminate against bald lawyers from New York City, I'll object, but that's not the only time you should call foul. When you see this kind of horrible crime against humanity, you have to decide if you are going to take a stand or not.

Q: Why did you decide to make a movie, especially a fiction film, about this issue?

A: There's not anyone who doesn't know that there's underage prostitution. If they say they do, they are either very naive or lying. But I didn't know the extent, how many kids are affected and their ages. I thought if I don't know, let me assume that other people don't know. Mass media has a power to raise awareness that other forms may not. So, I thought, "Let me make an honest film from the girl's point of view." This girl represents millions of others. It honestly deals with this global epidemic. It will get a lot of people touched by it and encourage them to get involved.

Q: How do you think this film can actually make a difference in the lives of these children?

A: We are using this film as a tool in conjunction with anti-sexual assault organizations. We brought a platform to allow them to do their work better. In Albany, we are working with the New York Coalition Against Sexual Assault. The best thing that can be done to decrease the problem is to go after the demand. I don't believe you can go to someone and tell them, "You know, this is wrong." They already know what they are doing is wrong. We created practical action items based on law and economics. We launched a global campaign called Red Light Children that works on what laws need to be passed that are not on the books, how to qualify current laws and how to enforce law and allocate resources.

Danielle Furfaro can be reached at 454-5097 or by e-mail at dfurfaro@timesunion.com.

Writer's talk
Guy Jacobson, writer and producer of "Holly," will speak at Spectrum Theatres.
When: After the 6:35 p.m. showings tonight and Saturday
Where: Spectrum 8 Theatres, 290 Delaware Ave., Albany
Information: 449-8995 or http://www.spectrum8.com

Through Film "Holly," the Pervasive Nature of a Perverse Trade

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original reports from Washington
30 November 2007

"Holly," a feature-length film that screened in Washington Wednesday, tells a gritty story of Cambodia's rampant sex trade through the eyes of a 12-year-old girl and the Western man she tries to convince to marry her, or at least rescue her.

The story, which was filmed across Cambodia's brothel districts, including the notorious Svay Pak, paints a vivid, raw picture of the trade, which continues to thrive in across the country, thanks to corruption and collaboration by police, crime syndicates, traffickers and thugs.

Guy Jacobson, who produced and co-wrote the film, said he was inspired to act by the film after he was approached in 2002 by a clutch of young girls, some as young as five years old, soliciting him for sex. The scenario was appalling and incited him to action, he said. It became a verbatim scene in the film as well.

Holly (Thuy Nguyen), a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl who has been trafficked to Svay Pak, meets a card gambler named Patrick (Ron Livingston), and tries to convince him to marry her. He says she's too young and sets out to learn how he might save her. Along the way, he learns how pervasive the practice is and how hard it is to bring a girl out of it.

The US State Department estimates 800,000 people are trafficked internationally each year, and millions more within national borders are sold into the sex industry. Human trafficking earns millions of dollars per year for corrupt officials and organized crime syndicates.

Jacobson said he received death threats as he tried to make his film, and had to hire 40 men armed with AK-47s to protect him and his crew as they shot.

"When we arrived in Cambodia, we got a call from Interpol saying, 'You guys are crazy. You are in the most dangerous place in the world, making a move about this issue…. Get the hell out of Cambodia,'" he said.

"We were at war trying to make this film," he said.

Interpol's chief officer in Cambodia, Brig. Gen. Keo Van Than, declined to comment on specific threats, saying he was not in his position at the time. "It seems there is not threat," he said.

The two-hour film contains many scenes of drama and suffering, showing police in uniform associating with owners of the brothel and extorting of money, on duty.

Ministry of Interior spokesman Lt. Gen. Khieu Sopheak said the film had "two faces," one to reflect reality and another to harm police credibility.

No country has a perfect police force above corruption, he said. "The Ministry of Interior has always taken legal action for individual police officials who commit illegal acts," he said.

The film also shows foreign tourists who find sexual entertainment under Cambodia's red-lights, where goons who protect brothels "arrest" girls in public without fear and where legal action is non-existent.

Holly and Patrick are stuck in a world with few solutions and few answers. Holly asks Patrick to buy her out of the brothel for $1,000, saying she loves him and wants to marry him. She tries to escape by other means, and, in once scene, literally finds herself in a mine field. Patrick does what he can but finds himself as mired as Holly.

"The movie will be very helpful to people around the world who are ordinary citizens, to make them stop and realize that it is the demand for commercial sexual exploitation which makes it possible for pimps, exploiters, traffickers and corrupt officials to do the harm that they do," said Ambassador Mark Lagon, director of the US State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, who opened the screening in front of about 300 audience members.

A Vietnamese student from Georgetown University in the audience who asked not to be named said the film portrayed the "horrible" reality of human trafficking in Southeast Asia but said she was reminded that the trade is everywhere.

Governments need to take the issue more seriously, she said.

Bill Livermore, a representative of LexisNexis, which helped support the film, told VOA Khmer that in the last five or ten years, organized crime was growing "rapidly" and was very profitable, helped along by human trafficking.

The US government meanwhile has put Cambodia on a watch list of governments that are not doing enough to curb trafficking. Cambodia was sanctioned as one of the worst offenders at one time, but it has made some arrests in recent years of sex traffickers.

Lagon welcomed the recent arrest of a Russian businessman in Sihanoukville on charges of debauchery, but he said the US wanted to see better enforcement of trafficking laws.

"That's a step forward," he said, "but we want to see more."

'Holly' details Cambodia sex trade

Independent film focusing on lives of child prostitutes opens today in Long Beach

11/22/2007
By Phillip Zonkel, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram (Long Beach, California, USA)

In March 2002, Guy Jacobson, on vacation near Phnom Penh, Cambodia, was surrounded by 15 girls, aggressively soliciting him for prostitution.

One 5-year-old girl told Jacobson, "I yum yum very good."

She begged Jacobson for money and said the madam of her brothel would beat her if she returned empty-handed.

Jacobson gave the girl $20, and she left.

But Jacobson didn't forget.

That encounter is recreated word for word in the new independent film "Holly," which opens today at the Edwards Long Beach Stadium 26, among other locations. The film is about a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl who has been sold by her impoverished family and smuggled into Cambodia, where she is forced to work as a prostitute.

Holly is played by 17-year-old Thuy Nguyen, a Westminster High School senior.

Jacobson wrote the film's script with director Guy Moshe.

"I was horrified to find it wasn't an isolated case," says Jacobson, one of the film's producers, during a recent telephone interview from his New York City residence. "When I realized how much of a global problem it is, a light bulb went off and I decided to write a movie about it."

The numbers are huge and reach into all countries.

Every year, more than 1 million children, women and men around the world are sold into sexual slavery, according to UNICEF.

The U.S. State Department estimates 800,000 victims are trafficked across international borders annually with 17,500 sold in the United States. Nearly 30 percent of the victims are between the ages of 9 and 15, and some are as young as 5 or 6 years old.

The $12 billion sex slave trade is the third most profitable criminal industry, behind only narcotics and weapons, according to Interpol.

In "Holly," Patrick (Ron Livingston, "Sex and the City"), is an American card shark and dealer of stolen artifacts, who, for many years, has lived emotionally numb in Phnom Penh. Then he meets Holly (Nguyen), a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl, in a red-light village inhabited by child prostitutes.

The girl has been sold by her impoverished family and smuggled across the border to work as a prostitute.

Holly's virginity makes her a lucrative object, and when she is sold to a child trafficker, Patrick embarks on a frantic search to bring her to safety.

For Nguyen, a Vietnam native who moved to Westminster in 2003, working on the film was an eye-opening experience.

"I had heard about human trafficking in general, but didn't know much about it," says Nguyen, who was 14 during film production.

Filmed on location

"Holly" was shot on location in Cambodia, including several scenes in actual brothels and Phnom Penh's infamous Svay Pak, also known as K 11 (it's 11 kilometers from Phnom Penh). For years, that notorious red-light village has been the premiere destination for thousands of child molesters and sex tourists coming to Cambodia to prey on children, some as young as 5 years old, for as little as $5.

For her research, Nguyen, who was 14 at the time, met with a 16-year-old Vietnamese girl who was a former child prostitute.

The girl told Nguyen that before working in the K 11, she had been raped by her stepfather and uncle.

"It was really sad to hear about her life," Nguyen says. "But it helped me to understand my character better and what these kids go through."

While on location, Moshe was troubled at the open acceptance of child trafficking and slavery.

"It's horrifying how these things happen and people just go about their daily lives," Moshe says during a recent phone interview from Hollywood. "That's more shocking than anything."

Difficult, dangerous

The 190-day production schedule for "Holly" began in January 2005, and it seemed like no one in Cambodia wanted "Holly" made.

Less than 12 hours before the first day of shooting, Moshe - with an armed bodyguard - sat in a hotel lobby counting $60,000 in cash to a local gangster - also with an armed bodyguard - to secure the release of the film's sound equipment.

During filming in and around the K 11, which is reported to be owned by the Vietnamese mafia, the cast and crew worked under heavy protection from guards armed with AK-47s.

Moshe, 33, says he knew ahead of time filming would be difficult and potentially dangerous, but "I went out and did it anyway. It was a job that had to get done." No one was hurt during production, he says.

At the end, a lot of people made the film for more than cinematic reasons.

"This is a crime against humanity," says Jacobson, who helped form www.redlightchildren.org, a grassroots initiative to increase awareness and inspire immediate action against the child sex trade. "Many of us don't look at `Holly' as simply a film. We were trying to make a difference with the film."

"I'm glad I was a part of this movie," Nguyen says. "It will help people be more aware of human trafficking."

Free LA Screening: 'Holly'

November 12, 2007
www.backstage.com (USA)

Back Stage and the Fine Arts Theatre invite you to a free screening of Holly, a feature drama about a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl sold into sex slavery and an American expat's attempt to rescue her. The film stars Ron Livingston (Band of Brothers, Office Space), the late Chris Penn (King of Sorrow, The Darwin Awards), Udo Kier (Grindhouse, Halloween), Virginie Ledoyen (The Beach, The Valet), and newcomer Thuy Nguyen.

Every year more than two million children are kidnapped and sold into prostitution. The film, shot almost entirely on location in the infamous Svay Pak red light district of Cambodia, takes an emotional look at the horrors endured by youngsters trapped in a world of sex tourism and child molestation.

A Q&A with first-time director Guy Moshe and actor Ron Livingston will follow the screening. The event will be held Monday, Nov. 19, 3 p.m., at the Fine Arts Theatre, 8556 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills.

For more on the film, visit www.priorityfilms.com/holly.html.

Admission is free. RSVP to rsvp@studioscreenings.com. Note the number of guests in your party and your Back Stage affiliation. $2 validated parking available at 8484 Wilshire (S.E. corner of Wilshire and La Cienega).

Screening of the movie Holly in Long Beach; Q&A with Mu Sochua; Proceeds donated to Women Movement of Cambodia

Click on the poster to zoom in

A screening of the film "Holly" which was shot on location in Cambodia, and depicting child prostitution, will be held at:

Regal Long Beach Stadium
7501 Carson Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90808
Tel. (562) 429-3321

Date: November 24, 2007
Time: 4:00 PM

The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with Mrs. Mu Sochua, Former Minister of Woman's Affairs of Cambodia and current SRP Deputy Secretary-General.

The proceeds will be donated as a charitable contribution to the Women Movement of Cambodia.

For tickets, contact:

Kanitha Prak (562) 3230-5100
Sovanndy Than (562) 715-9976
Davuth Chhay (562) 256-5102
Chantrea Seng (213) 271-8833
Parasoeur Vann (562) 492-1320

Film Synopsis:

Shot on location in Cambodia, including many scenes in actual brothels in the notorious red light district of Phnom Penh, HOLLY is a captivating, touching and emotional experience.

Patrick (Ron Livingston), an American card shark and dealer of stolen artifacts, has been ‘comfortably numb’ in Cambodia for years, when he encounters Holly (Thuy Nguyen), a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl, in the K11 red light village. The girl has been sold by her impoverished family and smuggled across the border to work as a prostitute.

Holly’s virginity makes her a lucrative prize, and when she is sold to a child trafficker, Patrick embarks on a frantic search through both the beautiful and sordid faces of the country, in an attempt to bring her to safety.

Harsh, yet poetic, this feature forms part of the ‘K-11’ Project, dedicated to raising awareness of the epidemic of child trafficking and the sex slavery trade through several film projects. The film’s producers endured substantial hardships in order to be able to shoot in Cambodia and have also founded the RedLight Children Campaign, which is a worldwide grassroots initiative generating conscious concern and inspiring immediate action against child sexploitation.