Check It Out: Movie with a mission to save kids
By Joan Janzen
Here’s a superhero riddle for you. Q: What would you get if Batman and Robin were smashed by a steamroller? A: Flat man and Ribbon.
It takes superhuman powers to find a funny superhero joke. But whether it’s comic books or in the movies - everyone loves superheroes. Yet not all real-life heroes make it onto the silver screen; however, there’s one exception.
The movie “Sound of Freedom” will be released in 1200 theatres across America on July 4, and they hope to release it internationally at a later date. It’s based on the life of Tim Ballard, a former CIA agent and Department of Homeland Security staff member who founded Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) a decade ago. Jim Caviezel plays Tim in the movie.
The film was produced by Eduardo Verastegui, who grew up in Mexico. In an online interview by Flashpoint, he said the US is the number one consumer of child sex, and Mexico is the number one provider of children. “I love Mexico, and I love America. In Mexico, six children disappear every hour. When you hear that, you think - how can I turn the other way and not do something?” That’s why he produced the film.
Tim said the movie tells a true story. “Every bad guy is real; every kid is real. At the end of the movie, it lists where each kid is today,” he explained. “The only thing is they make me look way cooler than I am.”
In real life, OUR has rescued over 7,000 children in ten years and placed them in recovery, and made over 5,000 arrests. “There’s millions of children; that’s a drop in the bucket,” he said. “But the storytellers change everything. I hope this film can be a modern-day liberation, to shine a light on modern-day slavery and wake up the world to what’s happening,” Tim said.
Actor, Jim Caviezel said he hopes the movie will cause whistleblowers to come forward and reveal what’s going on. And what’s going on is a growing international crime network that has surpassed the drug trade. Tim said it’s because you can sell a bag of cocaine one time, but a child can be sold five to ten times a day.
OUR is a non-profit organization with offices in five regions. They are constantly working with law enforcement, extracting children and delivering them to aftercare services.
“There’s more people enslaved today than in the history of the world, which shocks people.” Tim said the sex slave and organ-harvesting crime networks are growing. “We call this a hidden war.”
According to Tim, there are five anti-drug agents for every anti-child trafficking investigator. It’s not a priority, and everything moves slowly. “People need to get loud; that’s when everything changes,” Tim said.
Eduardo agreed, asking, “How can we turn this into a priority? This is beyond ourselves; this is big. We need a movement that will end child trafficking.” Tim noted that if you do a Google search on the topic, hardly anything shows up.
While undercover, Tim doesn’t carry a weapon; he chooses to disarm people by acting his part and wearing a disguise. But this isn’t a movie; he’s doing it in real and dangerous surroundings. At the end of an operation, he gets arrested, along with the criminals, as part of his cover.
“I’ve been doing this for over a decade. At the end of an operation, there’s a huge release, and I end up crying. It may be an hour later or a week later, but I end up crying,” he admitted.
After watching “Sound of Freedom,” you’ll end up crying too. But the film’s producer is hoping for more than just tears.
“When people see this film, they will leave not only entertained but wanting to do something,” he concluded.
Before every operation, Tim said, “I ask myself a simple question - if that was my kid, would I go? It’s a no-brainer, then it’s easy.”