The Film
CALL+RESPONSE is a first of its kind feature documentary film that reveals the world’s 27 million dirtiest secrets: there are more slaves today than ever before in human history. CALL+RESPONSE goes deep undercover where slavery is thriving from the child brothels of Cambodia to the slave brick kilns of rural India to reveal that in 2007, Slave Traders made more money than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.
Luminaries on the issue such as Cornel West, Madeleine Albright, Daryl Hannah, Julia Ormond, Ashley Judd, Nicholas Kristof, and many other prominent political and cultural figures offer first hand account of this 21st century trade. Performances from Grammy-winning and critically acclaimed artists including Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Talib Kweli, Five For Fighting, Switchfoot, members of Nickel Creek and Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Rocco Deluca move this chilling information into inspiration for stopping it.
Music is part of the movement against human slavery. Dr. Cornel West connects the music of the American slave fields to the popular music we listen to today, and offers this connection as a rallying cry for the modern abolitionist movement currently brewing.
The New Model
There is a sea of change happening in human rights activism. The world’s issues cannot be solved alone by governments and non-profits, but require community-based participation. As a feature film, CALL+RESPONSE has the unique position of being not only a ground-breaking genre-bending film, but due to the fact that this project was funded completely through donations, it operates as a powerful movement with 100% of profits going to fund global field projects on the front lines of this issue.
CALL+RESPONSE is creating interactive field projects for each aspect of human slavery: sex slavery, labor slavery, child soldiers and child slavery. All profits from the use of the film, dvd, soundtrack, itunes downloads will be directed, by the viewers, to these projects with clear start and finish points (ie a landrover for a child soldier rehab camp, sewing machines for a after-care training facility). Our goal is to fund and celebrate completed projects together in community. We are closing the loop by allowing viewers to become participants in the solution.
The Director
CALL+RESPONSE is proof that anyone can help create a movement. A musician his entire life, Director/Producer Justin Dillon came across the issue of Human Trafficking while touring in Russia. Justin met scores of girls whose ambition to come to west was being preyed upon by traffickers. The young girl assigned to interpret for him would share about the many “opportunities” that were being offered to her to come to west.
Justin looked into the phoney opportunities being offered to these girls and became incensed at how easy it was to trick them. After sharing with them the dangers of these proposals, he vowed to do something about this issue once he returned home.
When he returned to the United States, Justin Dillon had no connections or leverage within the entertainment industry to enlist participation, so he began cold calling managers and agents. He sent an email through Daryl Hannah’s website (an activist on this issue) and she responded back immediately. Without any funding or experience in film, Justin began to gather support. Recording artists began to accept his persistent petition that popular music owes a debt to the issue of slavery. Justin’s belief that most of popular music today is rooted in the music of the slave fields in America began to take root in other artists, and the roster began to build and build.
The Movement
The film is Calling and millions of people across the world are Responding at www.CallandResponse.com. The modern abolitionist movement will be a bottom-up movement where all talents, interests, and skills will be utilized. CallandResponse.com is a ground-breaking robust online interactive platform, which combines the passion of justice and scope of a Presidential Campaign with the swagger of Rock & Roll.
CALL+RESPONSE’s chilling undercover footage, stunning performances and life-changing interviews exposes audiences to the world’s 27 million most terrifying secrets and culminates in a single question: “What Will Your Response Be?”
