When John Fields decided to see the new movie “Sound of Freedom,” he didn’t know what to expect. He read some reviews and knew the subject matter – human trafficking – was a sensitive one. He was not prepared for the effect the film would have on him.
“I’ll be honest with you, I cried during most of the movie,” Fields said. “… It just touched me, and I just wanted other people to see it. It’s really not about me. It’s like the main actor said, ‘It’s not about us. It’s about getting the message out there.’ I didn’t know a lot about human trafficking. We hear about it a lot, but I didn’t know it was a multi-billion dollar deal. I had never heard of that.”
The film stars Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard, a former Homeland Security agent who became an anti-human trafficking activist.
“‘Sound of Freedom,’ based on the incredible true story, shines a light on even the darkest of places,” reads the official synopsis by Angel Studios, the film’s distributor. “After rescuing a young boy from ruthless child traffickers, a federal agent learns the boy’s sister is still captive and decides to embark on a dangerous mission to save her.”
Following the film, Caviezel is shown delivering a message for audiences urging them to “pay it forward” by purchasing tickets for others. That is what inspired Fields to do so.
“It just really touched home with me and I wanted other people to see it,” Fields said. “They had something at the end where you could donate and buy tickets for people and that’s what I wanted to do. I bought 100 tickets, and I wanted to pay it forward so other people would see it and become aware of it.”
He purchased the tickets through the studio’s website, angel.com, and posted the code on Facebook for anyone to use.
To redeem the tickets, the viewers select the showtime they want through the studio’s website and enter the code Fields provided.
“I think that everybody who goes to see it feels that way, you walk out and you want to do something,” Fields said. “I was going to rent the theater out, but then I decided to buy tickets and post the code and you can go fill it out and get the tickets. If those get used up, I’ll do it again. I just want to pay it forward. I just felt that compelled watching it.”
Human trafficking
The National Human Trafficking Hotline, a nonprofit that receives reports of suspected trafficking as well as connecting victims with resources for help, has identified 164,839 victims since its inception in 2007.
Of those, 2,058 were in Mississippi.
“We cannot allow this crime to be met with increasing indifference and impunity,” reads the United Nations website. “We must strengthen resilience against exploitation and the underlying socio-economic and cultural issues that are conducive to trafficking. We must sensitize everyone to the topic of human trafficking and thus push attention towards those who can make a difference in terms of changing policy and national resource management to strengthen prevention measures, improve identification of victims, increase support of survivors and end impunity.”
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