Courtesy of Priority Films
Trading places
Ron Livingston journeys through the child sex trade in Holly
By Mengly Taing
Published: November 15th, 2007 | 8:14am
It's easy to ignore the fact that there are nearly 2 million child prostitutes in the world today, until it stares you in the face. Then the gaze becomes inescapable. After a visit to Cambodia in 2002, Guy Jacobson was never the same again.
"I encountered a group of 5-to-7-year-old girls in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, who aggressively tried to solicit me for prostitution," Jacobson, the founder of Priority Films, said. "I gave them some money and walked away, but decided to do something about it."
When he returned to New York, Jacobson founded the Redlight Children Campaign to raise awareness about child sex trafficking. As part of their worldwide initiative, he and his colleagues produced Holly, the first of three films comprising the K11 Project, named after one of Cambodia's most infamous brothels. Two other documentaries are currently in production.
In Holly, Ron Livingston plays Patrick, an American living in self-absorbed anonymity in Cambodia. He makes a living swindling gamblers and stealing artifacts and is callous to the problems around him until he meets Holly, played by newcomer Thuy Nguyen. Sold into prostitution by her family and smuggled across the border from neighboring Vietnam, 12-year-old Holly is as much an observer as her viewers. She is thrust into a world where smiles quickly turn into snarls and virginity is the highest form of human currency – and even that can be bargained, as hers is.
When she is sold to another brothel, Patrick returns to her old room only to discover an even younger girl has taken her place. As they travel through the country's impoverished streets to find each other, Holly loses herself in her surroundings.
The film also goes where few others before it have ventured. The crew went through great lengths to shoot scenes in K11, also known as the village of Svay Pak, where actual brothels existed before they were shut down in 2004. The rooms, plastered with images of local models and movie stars, are real.
"Producing this project has been an uphill battle, and sometimes seemed more like a war," said Adi Ezroni, one of the film's producers who was detained in the country for two weeks before being allowed to return home. "Everything that could go wrong, did." Among the hurdles they faced, the crew was harassed by the Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Chinese mafia and was guarded by 40 bodyguards with AK-47s.
The issue of child sexploitation in Cambodia is still a sensitive topic and for those reasons, Holly is a heroic endeavor. The abuse, the corruption, the betrayal, the rejection, and the ease of getting lost in the trade are all common experiences described by surviving child prostitutes. At the end, Holly stands alone in the dark. In an unnerving close-up, she stares straight into the camera. There, in the silence, the film hits hardest. There in her eyes lies the hope for change.
The film is currently playing in New York City and will be released in select cities later this month.
For more information about the film, visit priorityfilms.com, and for more information about the K11 Project and the Redlight Children Campaign, visit redlightchildren.org. A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will go towards the Redlight Children Campaign.
Issue #35
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