{"id":18008,"date":"2023-06-23T10:32:33","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T14:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=18008"},"modified":"2023-06-23T10:32:33","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T14:32:33","slug":"angel-studios-founder-hopes-to-combat-child-trafficking-with-new-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2023\/06\/angel-studios-founder-hopes-to-combat-child-trafficking-with-new-film","title":{"rendered":"Angel Studios Founder Hopes to Combat Child Trafficking With New Film"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_18020\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18020\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/06\/neal-harmon-credit-angel-studios-youtube.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18020\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2023\/06\/neal-harmon-credit-angel-studios-youtube.png\" alt=\"neal harmon\" width=\"768\" height=\"522\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18020\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Angel Studios\/YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The founders of Angel Studios are thrilled to be a part of the upcoming release, \u201cSound of Freedom,\u201d as they ask two million people to support the movie to help expose the evil of child trafficking and exploitation. \u201cThe Sound of Freedom,\u201d scheduled for release on July 4, tells the story of one man\u2019s trek to fight sex trafficking.<\/p>\n<p>Angel Studios, the studio behind the movie, released the first trailer at their Illuminate 2023 event in May. Based on the life of Tim Ballard, a former U.S. agent who fights human trafficking, the film stars Jim Caviezel, joined by Mira Sorvino, Bill Camp, and Jos\u00e9 Z\u00fa\u00f1iga. Eduardo Ver\u00e1stegui is the film&#8217;s producer, while Alejandro Monteverde is the writer and director of the film.<\/p>\n<p>On the red carpet of Illuminate 2023, Jordan Harmon, co-founder of Angel Studios, told The Christian Post, \u201cI think that when I first saw this film, Eduardo and Alejandro and their team and what they\u2019ve done is remarkable. It fits perfectly into our mission of telling stories that are honest, true, just beautiful, excellent stories.\u201d He continued, &#8220;I&#8217;m honored to be able to work with them in such an incredible capacity to, hopefully, get this to the world in such a meaningful way. We couldn&#8217;t be more honored to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In its trailer, \u201cSound of Freedom\u201d boldly declares, &#8220;God\u2019s children are not for sale.\u201d Angel Studios CEO Neal Harmon told CP the film&#8217;s heartbeat aligns with the studio&#8217;s mission to inspire people to action. &#8220;I believe that the reason that Angel has seen so much success is because of the people that Angel&#8217;s name stands for and the filmmakers who are coming out of the woodwork with stories that haven&#8217;t been able to get out there. They&#8217;re so well made,&#8221; he commented.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hyyyKcfJRGQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Harmon continued, &#8220;What happens when audiences see something true and excellent is that they recognize inside their soul that this has been missing, and it&#8217;s different. That&#8217;s the importance of what we&#8217;re doing is that it&#8217;s true; it&#8217;s based on a true foundation. So people come and help it to happen, and this is bigger than any one of us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Angel Studios is a stage for filmmakers to collaborate with the audience, bringing projects to life with crowdfunding. It\u2019s the company behind the hit series \u201cThe Chosen\u201d and the film \u201cHis Only Son.\u201d Around Easter this year, it reached number three at the box office. Angel Studios Chief Content Officer Jeffrey Harmon added, \u201cWe believe we\u2019re going to continue to see this kind of success at the box office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company feels a responsibility to take action and answer the prayers of the two million children worldwide who are currently being trafficked and crying for freedom. Angel Studios chose to release \u201cSound of Freedom\u201d\u00a0 on July 4 to make the message clear, despite industry experts telling them not to compete with the summer releases.<\/p>\n<p>The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime\u00a0defines human trafficking as \u201cthe recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The founders of Angel Studios are thrilled to be a part of the upcoming release, \u201cSound of Freedom,\u201d as they ask two million people to support the movie to help expose the evil of child trafficking and exploitation. \u201cThe Sound of Freedom,\u201d scheduled for release on July 4, tells the story of one man\u2019s trek&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":18020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2444,32,184,4],"tags":[3620,3623],"class_list":["post-18008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-christian","category-entertainment","category-faith","tag-angel-studios","tag-sound-of-freedom"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Angel Studios Founder Hopes to Combat Child Trafficking With New Film<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The founders of Angel Studios are thrilled to be part of the upcoming film &quot;Sound of Freedom,&quot; asking two million people to support the film.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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