SANDS OF SILENCE: Waves of Courage
The film that inspires you to speak out about sexual violence
TRAILER
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Our main audiences are survivors, mid & high school students, university students, women of all ages, and surprisingly, sexual violence offenders serving time in prisons an involved in rehabilitation programs.
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A 15-year quest to expose the underworld of sexual exploitation and trafficking from Asia to the Americas leads world-reporter Chelo Alvarez-Stehle to the windswept beach where her childhood ended and family secrets began.
SYNOPSIS
A 15-year quest to expose the underworld of sexual exploitation and trafficking from Asia to the Americas leads world-reporter Chelo Alvarez-Stehle back to the windswept beach where her childhood ended and family secrets began. As Chelo documents the transformation of sex trafficking survivors, she meets Virginia Isaias, a Mexican woman living in California who had been kidnapped and forced into prostitution by a sex-trafficking ring in Chiapas.
Tapping into deep-rooted childhood memories, the filmmaker immerses us in an intimate, poetic exploration of sexual violence. A visual dialogue juxtaposes her personal experiences with those of Virginia Isaias, a Mexican-American woman embarked on a life-and-death quest to shatter the cycle of sexual exploitation engulfing her life. The film sheds light on the tightly woven chains of abuse and silence that entrap survivors in a recurring pattern of violence.
When Virginia breaks free from her captors, we are captivated by her uplifting evolution, as she becomes an inspiring crusader against modern-day slavery.
Inspired by Virginia’s courage, Chelo is moved to explore her unyielding desire for seeking out these types of stories in what becomes a parallel journey of introspection that shatters the silence of abuse her own family and in her own life.
Virginia Isaias and daughter Lala Isaías who survived kidnapping by a sex trafficking ring in Mexico.
OUR AWARD-WINNING TEAM
| Producer/Director/Writer | Chelo Alvarez-Stehle |
| Executive Producers | Deirdre Roney |
| Mark Stehle | |
| Directors of Photography | Vicente Franco |
| Lara Weithorn | |
| Editors | Marla Ulloa |
| María Zeiss | |
| Kate Amend, ACE | |
| Jean Philippe Boucicaut | |
| Original Soundtrack | Jason Martin Castillo |
| Illustrator/Animator | David Navas |
READ THEIR BIOS and CHEK OUT THE FULL LIST OF CREDITS HERE