Excerpts from three critically acclaimed films on the worldwide sexual exploitation of children were previewed on Sunday, Nov. 19, on Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus. The three films, a feature-length narrative (Holly) and two documentaries (Virgin Harvest and The K11 Journey), are based on the experiences of children in the underage sex trade.
The event featured Guy Jacobson, president of Priority Films, which produced the films; actress Thuy Nguyen, who plays the title role in Holly; film scholar Anne-Katrin Titze, City University of New York; and Elaine P. Congress, Ph.D., professor of social work and associate dean of Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Services. Holly is the story of child prostitution told through the complex relationship between Holly (Thuy Nguyen), a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl, and Patrick (Ron Livingston), an American dealer of stolen artifacts. Virgin Harvest chronicles the flourishing child trafficking industry in Cambodia, and The K11 Journey follows two teams of international filmmakers as they struggle to capture the terrifying reality of the child sex trade in Southeast Asia.
The events were part of International Education Week, a national initiative promoting international education and exchange sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education. The film screenings at Fordham were sponsored by the Fordham Psychology Association Crowley Program in International Human Rights and the Society for Psychological Study of Social Issues.
