Podcast: Human & Sex Trafficking Awareness: with Christina Zorich, director of “The New Abolitionists.
April 10, 2023
Filmmaker Christina Zorich joins us to discuss her documentary film, “The New Abolitionists,” released today, April 11th, across Apple TV and most streaming platforms. The film travels to Southeast Asia to follow four different Christian ministries who dedicate their lives to rescuing and rehabilitating adults and children who fell victim to the human sex trafficking trade. It’s truly vile and heartbreaking.
FoxNews.com – Olympia Dukakis’ filmmaker daughter highlights human sex trafficking in Southeast Asia: ‘A global industry’
April 10, 2023
Asia is considered the most trafficked region in the world with an estimated 11 million slaves, “The New Abolitionists” reveals at the outset. In 2016, Zorich traveled to Southeast Asia to document the work of Christian ministries who have dedicated their lives to ending human sex trafficking, including Extreme Love Ministries, Tamar Center, and NightLight International. Shadowing the work of the groups, Zorich found scores of women being trafficked in local karaoke bars and more.
Golden Globes.com – Docs: “The New Abolitionists” – The Mission to End Sex Trafficking in Southeast Asia
April 2, 2023
Christina Zorich unveils a powerful new documentary, The New Abolitionist, a movie about the mission to end sex trafficking in Southeast Asia. The feature doc, produced by Olympia Dukakis, trails the journey of abolitionists throughout Southeast Asia, people who have devoted their lives to freeing and rehabilitating those involved in criminal human sex trafficking, and prosecuting the perpetrators.
Article – Fighting back against human trafficking through education, empowerment
January 02, 2022
“This year, the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival brought together KidSafe Foundation, a local South Florida organization dedicated to educating and empowering children to make them harder targets for trafficking and sexual abuse, and “The New Abolitionists,” a documentary that follows four nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Thailand and Cambodia fighting to end human sex trafficking. Together, this partnership is raising awareness about the growing problem of human trafficking in this country and abroad.”
Interview – “New Abolitionist” Filmmaker Christina Zorich Exposes Human Trafficking in Asia & America
December 22, 2021
“Christina Zorich’s documentary “The New Abolitionists” on human sex trafficking in Asia, was an all-encompassing six-year endeavor where she poured her heart and soul into a cause that came to her almost a decade back. The movie has inspired audiences through the festival circuit, garnering numerous accolades including winning runner-up at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival. Christina is now in talks for wider distribution and streaming for this important film.”
Article – Closure of the 36th Edition of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
November 25, 2021
““The documentary THE NEW ABOLITIONIST is impossible to leave indifferent.”
Review – Film Threat
Nov 20, 2020
“The New Abolitionists is an important film because it sheds light on a pervasive problem in every city around the world (yes, ours too) and highlights the brave women and men who put their lives on the line to do something about it…”
Interview – Séptimo Arte Hoy
November 20, 2021
By Ernesto Rodriguez-Carbó for Seventh Art For Excellence
https://septimoarteporexcelencia.blogspot.com
ER-C: Tell me, please, about the difficulties, both technical and production, that you had to face during the filming and the approximate time it took to conceive your documentary.
CZ: It was really a series of now stop challenges, at every stage of the project. Just even deciding to do the project required me to work through tremendous resistance in myself.
Live TV Interview – Human Trafficking Plaguing Florida, NBC 6 “Voices” South Florida
November 16, 2021
Interview – Don’t be discouraged by this topic – Choose 954
November 11, 2021
HOW CAN YOUR FILM HELP THIS PROBLEM?
“We are partnering with KidSafe, a Boca Raton Foundation that teaches kids from K to 5th grade how to recognize danger and access help. This film is a humanitarian effort for the public to know how to protect kids. Abusers are usually someone they know and often they are even the breadwinner. Kids become confused, shamed, threatened and often manipulated into silence. We help the average citizen understand human trafficking because once they hear what goes on, they won’t be able to un-see or un-hear it.”
Article – Late Olympia Dukakis and Daughter Christina Zorich to Receive Award at Richmond Film Festival
Aug 16, 2021
“This year’s award is particularly special as we recognize the outstanding contribution of family legacy. Through the lens of a Mother Daughter relationship, The New Abolitionists, and their other humanitarian endeavors, we are reminded of the powerful influence we can have when joining together with family, the industry, and community to use our collective voice to make positive change,” says Festival Founder and Producer, Heather Waters.
Article – Olympia Dukakis And Christina Zorich To Receive Award At The Richmond International Film Festival
Aug 12, 2021
Christina Zorich and her late mother, the Academy Award winning actress Olympia Dukakis, will receive the Mother/Daughter Women of Excellence Award for their documentary The New Abolitionists at the Richmond International Film Festival.
Video Interview – The Sherard Show
June 25, 2021
Audio Interview – ABC News Radio KMET 1490 AM, The Morning Show with Aaron Michael Sanchez
June 10, 2021
Article – News-Press for Fort Myers Film Festival (Subscribers Only)
May 6, 2021
The following is a transcription of our portion of this article:
“‘Why the fest chose the film: ‘Human trafficking is something we hear about and wish more could be done,’ Raddatz says. ‘This crew set out to do something about it. … This one is an eye-opener and one that hopefully keeps the discussion going and saves a life or two.’”
Read it Here, With a Subscription
Interview – Florida Weekly for Fort Myers Film Festival
May 6, 2021
Articles – ArtSWFL.com for Fort Myers Film Festival
April 8, 2021
“While the street level scenes are certainly harrowing, most of the stories that the filmmakers share come compliments of in-studio interviews. They are poignant, heartbreaking and infuriating. Worse, they are representative of millions of similarly-situated young women and men. Anyone can find themselves a sex slave. Many young girls and women are tricked into prostitution. Others are sold into slavery by their own families or villages. Even more are drugged, abducted or blackmailed.”
April 9, 2021
“Actor/director Christina Zorich’s sex trafficking documentary, The New Abolitionists, screens at the Fort Myers Film Festival at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, May 16. It’s an important film that tracks the efforts of four ministries and related NGOs (non-governmental organizations) to rescue children and teens who have been entrapped and enslaved in the sex trade in Cambodia and Thailand.”
April 10, 2021
“The vast majority of us do not have the technical expertise, contacts or financial resources to make a documentary exposing human trafficking conditions or set up and operate halfway houses that provide refuge for victims. But all of us can make ourselves more aware of the problem in an effort to prevent those within our circle of influence from being victimized and rescue and rehabilitate those who do.”
Audio Interview – Emancipation Nation
March 30, 2021
The New Abolitionist documentary follows abolitionists throughout Southeast Asia dedicating their lives to rescuing and providing support to those involved as victims of sex trafficking. Filmmaker Christina Zorich spent her own time and money to make this film and details her journey through Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam to uncover work being done to fight human trafficking and help others heal. The documentary has been shown at over 40 film festivals and has already won 20 awards. A must see film.
Video – Winning Best Editing of a Documentary at London IFF
March 19, 2021
We were surprised with a win for Best Editing at International Filmmaker Festival of World Cinema, London. Our reaction was priceless! Click the link below to watch.
Audio Interview – Beloit International Film Festival
Feb 21, 2021
Q&A Conversation with BIFF 2021 Filmmakers from A Good Person, The New Abolitionists, and Teddy Out of Tune.
Article – New Jersey Stage
Feb 18, 2021
“The film exposes a vital aspect to fighting the gigantic issue of sex-trafficking: taking action. The volunteers that take a part of these daring rescue missions are regular people who have a heart to stop the cycles of forced servitude and prostitution. For many victims, these groups are their last hope for freedom, a quality education, and a job outside of prostitution. Often, NGO rescue teams have members pose as tourists looking to buy trafficking services in order to free the girls. Anti-trafficking teams, having caught the attention of local authorities, face threats for their work to shut down human trafficking, yet their unrelenting efforts have resulted in the physical, emotional, and spiritual restoration of many girls and women.”
Q&A – New Jersey Stage
Feb 16, 2021
“Standing up to, educating and stopping criminal activity globally must be on everyone’s top priority list. All countries. All cultures. All political systems. All religions. It’s the second largest criminal industry globally; second only to drugs. It is systemized abuse, and it is an industry that destroys lives. How much more ugly, evil, cruel, and wrong could something be? If we can’t all agree on protecting and fighting for a safe, healthy, and better future for children; we have truly failed in this lifetime.”
Audio Interview – Peloponnisos International Documentary Film Festival
Feb 13, 2021
Article – Bruce E. Von Stiers
Jan 19, 2021
“Even though I knew a bit about human trafficking, I didn’t understand how widespread it is, especially in Southeast Asia. The film was definitely an eye opener…”
Audio Interview – The Mike Wagner Show
Jan 9, 2021
Review – Lonely Wolf Film Festival
Dec 15, 2020
“Christina Zorich presents rare coverage of Cambodia’s underground trafficking mafia that sees 11 million modern-day sex slaves in that territory of the world alone, for the United Nations claimed in a 2019 report that 40 million victims of slavery exist in the whole wide world today. The New Abolitionists ventures to go where other documentarists don’t dare go for they’re risking their lives in doing so, that’s Zorich’s biggest merit; in effect this expository documentary discloses brutalist and dangerous footage to come by, especially for a woman filmmaker walking into a hellscape prison of abduction, slavery and femicide. I commend Zorich for her bravery and activism in employing her documentarian skillset to advance a neglected agenda and raise social consciousness on this global problem (and business). The New Abolitionists is dynamic, Zorich’s editorial construction is cohesive and immersive, from the get-go we are placed at the forefront of undercover operations run by a NGO; where its activists infiltrate themselves in prostitution hotspots as sex tourists to try and get victims out—women who are too young, illiterate, devoid of affection, and who are both traumatised and physically scarred from unimaginable sexual abuse. This NGO are their only hope. Zorich progresses onto exploring the work of child sponsorship programs and woman’s aftercare programs to explain the roots and causes of sex trafficking, which many of these women are shoved into as children for their parents’ extreme poverty and chronic malnutrition circumstances leave them no choice but to concede and rent /sell their babies. These programs are battling to break the cycle of poverty that leads to trafficking. Zorich’s filmed testimonials from victim survivors (some pixelated and anonymous) carry the documentary’s weight and power, confronting us with their pain and post-traumatic stress disorder. Meaw, now a team coordinator has to be the most inspiring subject here for exhibiting such resilience after everything she has overcome. Zorich’s documentary is scarring, hair-raising for the horrors it depicts whilst heart-warming for the victim survivors it interviews. One of the best expository documentaries of the year.”
Review – Cyprus International Film Festival
Nov 22, 2020
Review – Red Rock Film Festival
Nov 4, 2020
“It is a non-stop, unflinching account of what millions of teens and children are forced to endure to keep the sex industry thriving and pay their families’ meager bills at home…”
Audio Interview – Get the Funk Out! with Janeane Bernstein
Oct 14, 2020
Audio Interview – LA Femme Film Festival with Ariana Sanchez
Oct 12, 2020
Article – Broadway World
Oct 9th, 2020
“The New Abolitionists, a documentary by actress/producer Christina Zorich, tracks her journey as she follows committed abolitionists throughout Southeast Asia as they attempt to affect change and put an end to human sex trafficking. The film will screen on Sunday, October 18th, at 2PM at the (virtual) LA Femme International Film Festival, with a Q and A to follow…”
Q&A – Bridge Fest International
Sept 3, 2020
Review – Utah Film Festival
Aug 7, 2020
“Human sex trafficking is a long time disease in our society. I am honored to watch this documentary film entitled “The New Abolitionists”, wherein their mission is to end this sickness to save the future. This is an interesting piece, and people like me will get so much information from this project and will come to realize the reasons why there are so much people who are entering the illegal trade industry of prostitution. Awareness like this by the use of film as medium of letting the public know on how it can stop something illegal is a powerful weapon and hope to end the disease of the society. I do hope that everyone who would come to see this film will do their part even in a small way to contribute in ending something illegal so the it would never continue into the future.”
Audio Interview with Laura Spaeth at BBOX Radio
Jun 1, 2017
This is my radio interview about the making of my documentary.
If you missed it please listen here:
Article by Christina Zorich – Voices of Justice
September 1, 2017
“The question I continue to ask is: Where are we in all this? We’ve had 10 years of exposure to this subject in movies, television shows, interviews, news programs and various articles. Yet collectively, what real action have we taken?”
Q&A – Hidden Tears Project
March 24, 2017
Christina Zorich, founder of the anti-human trafficking organization The New Abolitionists, has worked as a professional actor, educator, director, producer and filmmaker.
In October of 2015, she began production on a documentary shot in Southeast Asia which follows rescue efforts for victims of trafficking. The New Abolitionists is the current working title for the film. Recently, the Hidden Tears Project asked Christina about her work.