A Hampton Roads man is fighting to stop child sex trafficking in America.
Isaac Gill, who lives in Norfolk and grew up in Williamsburg, helped produce the documentary: “Sex and Money: A National Search for Human Worth.”
Before working on the film, Gill says he had no idea how huge the problem is.
“My eyes were completely opened and my heart was shattered when i realized that this was happening in my own city, my own state, my own country,” Gill says.
After two years of traveling the country and conducting more than 75 interviews, the film finished in 2011.
Gill and the crew then hit the road again, educating communities in every state about sex trafficking happening in their backyards.
“The reaction we typically get from the documentary is shock and anger,” he says.
Tuesday night he spoke to a home crowd in Virginia Beach.
Our area, he says, is no stranger to the crime.
“Sex trafficking happens in Hampton Roads and what it looks like, it might look like street prostitution, it might look like creating or filming pornography,” Gill says. “There’s so many different avenues that it could express itself, but the response is still the same that these victims are victims. They’re not criminals.”
Gill estimates that up to 50,000 people have watched the documentary in the past two years, but there are many, he says, who chose to ignore the issue.
Those are the ones he says should be reached out to the most.
“A lot of people have seen it, but still not enough people have seen it,” Gill says. “We want the breadth of impact increased.”
Most of the proceeds from the documentary go towards funding Streetlight, a residential program that can house up to 48 survivors of domestic minor sex trafficking victims.
To purchase this documentary click here.
