Slavery Still Exists, a University student group devoted to raising awareness about modern-day slavery, will host a screening of the film “Call + Response” tonight at 7 p.m. in 129 McKenzie.
“Call + Response” is “the first feature rockumentary to expose the world’s 27 million most terrifying secrets,” according to its Web site, callandresponse.com, and it is a “catalyst to engage the public in fighting human trafficking.”
The film was completely funded by donations, which means 100 percent of its profits will go toward funding global field projects that are working against slave trade, which in 2007 made more money than Nike, Google and Starbucks combined, according to the film’s Web site.
Throughout the film, well-known figures such as Madeleine Albright, Ashley Judd and New York Times reporter and Oregon native Nicholas Kristof, as well as other prominent political and cultural figures discuss sex trafficking today. The film also includes performances from performance artists, such as Switchfoot, Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Five For Fighting and Cold War Kids.
Slavery Still Exists co-founder Kristin Rudolph said the group was originally formed two years ago to educate students about the fact that sex trafficking is still alive, especially in the Northwest. In a survey of 29 major U.S. cities, Seattle ranked No. 1 in underage sex trafficking, and Portland is at No. 2.
Rudolph said the Northwest has fallen victim to sex trafficking because its major cities lie along the Interstate 5 corridor, a straight path between Mexico and Canada. Unlike major cities in California that lie on the corridor, “Oregon doesn’t quite know how to handle it,” she said. “It’s a new issue we’re aware of, and we don’t really have the resources to do anything about it right away,” Rudolph said.
Rudolph said Slavery Still Exists members will participate this weekend in a poster-hanging event along the highway. They’ll tape up signs warning potential sex trafficking victims in women’s bathrooms along the corridor in anticipation of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, when many women will be in danger of being transported north.
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