Survivor-Vetted Films About Human Trafficking
How To Credit This List
This list of survivor-vetted films about human trafficking was created and curated by the trafficking survivor community around the world, led by Sabra Boyd, an independent writer and consultant with lived experience of human trafficking. Please note, Sabra is the only named survivor due to very violent harassment from Sound of Freedom fans and safety concerns. Please contact Sabra Boyd with any questions.
How to Support
Sabra Boyd led this initiative unpaid, so if you’d like to donate or contribute to a mutual aid fund for survivors that also helps fund writing workshops for human trafficking survivors, here’s a Venmo link
Suggested Action Items
There are many ways to support trafficking survivors, but the primary suggestion I always recommend is listening to survivors and hiring us as consultants while using the National Survivor Network’s toolkit for ethical survivor engagement practices.
Love 146 also created a list of great suggestions for people who want to do something. For example, if you’re good at cooking, consider cooking for your local homeless shelter; if you’re a nurse or a doctor, consider offering health checkups with a local street outreach organization; if you’re good at taxes and accounting, volunteer at a local DV shelter; if you’re good at writing resumes, volunteer at a local organization that serves immigrants or foster youth.
About This List
This is a list of survivor-vetted movies about human trafficking (documentaries, series, and scripted features) in no particular order. As survivors around the world add suggestions or veto films from the ballot, this list may change, so please check back for updates. Feel free to share this survivor-centered resource widely, and please note that most of these titles are triggering.
We have tried to compile a list of films that highlight the root causes of human trafficking which include housing, disparity, poverty, immigration policy, incarceration, racism, transphobia and homophobia, misogyny, the stigma that trafficked boys and men face, familial child trafficking, MMIP, police violence, religious abuse, child marriage, reproductive rights and access to healthcare, and many other intersecting factors.
Please contact Sabra Boyd if you have any questions or concerns. If your theater or community group would like to meet with a survivor leader consultant, please reach out as there are many trafficking survivors around the world who would like to help facilitate these conversations. Because trafficking survivors don’t need to be saved, we need to be listened to. We don’t want anyone to “give a voice to the voiceless” because we were never voiceless to begin with — we have voices already and we just need to be listened to.
Ending trafficking is a community effort, not any single person’s “heroic savior” role. Otherwise we risk a dangerous vigilante mindset that embraces a paternalistic, condescending stigma that paints survivors as permanent victims, revoking their agency and autonomy to tell you what they really need –– that agency and power to make your own choices is the very same thing that traffickers take away.
At its core, human trafficking is the exploitation of vulnerable people –– because traffickers prey on vulnerabilities. If we build infrastructure for things like housing and healthcare access, it will make everyone less vulnerable, safer, improve your quality of life, and is the most effective prevention and intervention method for human trafficking.
Few people have more expertise on the social determinants of health and intersecting vulnerabilities than trafficking survivors. So please, listen to survivors. All survivors. We are not a monolith, and we all have different expertise and skills, so please listen to all of us. Survivors have never needed anyone to give us a voice, as one Sound of Freedom producer condescendingly said in an interview. Survivors have never been voiceless; we just need to be listened to.
Thanks!
Sabra
How can I suggest another movie?
If you’d like to add a title that isn’t on the vetted list, please fill out this form and it will be included in the next ballot for survivors around the world to vote on including.
Animal Kingdom (2010 - Australia) - scripted feature film - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1313092/
Themes:
Familial Labor Trafficking
Forced Criminality
Addiction
Poverty
Organized Crime
The Workers Cup (2018) - documentary - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6333084/
Themes:
Labor Trafficking
Forced Labor
Immigrant Rights
Sporting Events
Poverty
Racism
Construction Industry
Survivor Made (2024) - documentary - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33297838/
Themes:
Trafficking survivors’ lives
Investing in survivors
Entrepreneurship and survivor-led and owned businesses
Economic opportunities
Disparity
Poverty
Social investment
Nona (2017) - scripted feature film - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6902708/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_7_tt_3_nm_5_q_nona
Themes:
Immigrant rights
Poverty
We Need to Talk About Cosby (2022) - documentary - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16378210/
Themes:
Economic disparity and power dynamics
Systemic oppression and racism
Misogyny and racism in the legal system
Untouchable (2019) - documentary - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9358228/
Shiny Happy People (2023) - documentary - https://imdb.com/title/tt27715627/
Themes:
Religion
LGBTQ rights
Systemic child abuse
Corporal punishment
Grooming
Coercion
Brainwashing
Foster care system and child welfare corruption
Saturday Church (2017) - scripted feature film - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loHVNlMKAx0
Themes:
LGBTQ rights and health
Religion
Community
Trans rights and healthcare
Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey (2022) - documentary series - https://imdb.com/title/tt20560404/
Themes:
Forced Child Marriage
Youth Homelessness
Religious abuse
Financial abuse
Domestic violence
Rural exploitation social dynamics
Child labor trafficking
Coercion
Construction industry and labor trafficking
American Street Kid (2020) - documentary - https://www.americanstreetkid.com/
Themes:
Youth homelessness
2SLGBTQ+ vulnerability
Poverty
Systemic oppression and racism
Foster care system and child welfare corruption
Pier Kids (2019) - documentary - https://www.criterionchannel.com/pier-kids/videos/pier-kids-trailer
Themes:
Youth homelessness
2SLGBTQ+ vulnerability
Poverty
Systemic oppression and racism
Foster care system and child welfare corruption
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) - scripted feature film - https://imdb.com/title/tt0252444/
Themes:
Domestic servitude
Foster care and child welfare corruption and abuse
MMIP
Systemic Racism
Genocide
The Stroll (2023) - documentary - https://imdb.com/title/tt24079774/
Themes:
Homelessness / Housing
2SLGBTQ+ vulnerability
Poverty
Systemic oppression and racism
Urban planning
Healthcare access
Transphobia
Homophobia
Sex worker rights
Police violence and corruption
Carceral system
Surviving R. Kelly (2019) - series documentary - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8385496/
Themes:
Youth homelessness
Poverty
Systemic oppression and racism
Foster care system and child welfare corruption
Police brutality / apathy and neglect of trafficking victims
“Perfect victim” trope
Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (2020) - series documentary - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12312250/
Themes:
Youth homelessness
2SLGBTQ+ vulnerability
Poverty
Addiction
Systemic oppression
Foster care system and child welfare corruption
Wealth and the unethical existence of billionaires
Government corruption
Police brutality / apathy and neglect of trafficking victims
Prosecutors’ corruption
Surviving Epstein (2020) - documentary - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10713688/
Themes:
Youth homelessness
2SLGBTQ+ vulnerability
Poverty
Addiction
Systemic oppression
Foster care system and child welfare corruption
Wealth and the unethical existence of billionaires
Government corruption
Police brutality / apathy and neglect of trafficking victims
Prosecutors’ corruption
“Perfect predator” and “perfect victim” trope (for more info on this, please contact Sabra Boyd)
Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich (2022) - documentary - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22892896/
Themes:
Youth homelessness
2SLGBTQ+ vulnerability
Poverty
Addiction
Systemic oppression
Foster care system and child welfare corruption
Wealth and the unethical existence of billionaires
Government corruption
Police brutality / apathy and neglect of trafficking victims
Prosecutors’ corruption
Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna) (2007) - scripted feature film - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796307/
Themes:
Immigration policies that create artificial vulnerability that traffickers prey upon
Poverty
Orphanhood (see also: COVID and rates of parents and caretakers dying)
Domestic servitude
Forced labor
Agriculture industry
Border
Immigrant rights
Palm Trees and Power Lines (2022) - scripted feature film - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15257116/
Monster in the Shadows (2021) - documentary - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15239868/
Girl in the Picture (2022) - documentary - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21059520/
Spotlight (2015) - scripted feature film - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1895587/
Themes:
Systemic oppression and corruption
Religious trauma
Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields (2023) - documentary - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt24141700/
Themes:
Forced child labor
Familial trafficking
Familial financial abuse
Addiction
Domestic violence / child abuse
Unseamly: The Investigation of Peter Nygård (2021) - documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7-qx_IgHpw
Themes:
Poverty
Extreme wealth disparity
Systemic oppression
Racism
Fast Food Nation (2006) - scripted feature film - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460792/
Themes:
Immigrant rights
Labor rights
Truth Be Told (Season 3) (2023) - scripted series (AppleTV) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SivtMhhvSU
Themes:
Racism
"Perfect victim" trope
Police and media biased coverage / investigations
Holes (2003) - scripted feature film - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311289/
Themes:
Court diversion programs and prisons' state-sponsored forced labor
Poverty
Systemic oppression
For-profit carceral programs / corporations
Alice (2022) - scripted feature film - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11040762/
Orange is the New Black - various episodes - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2372162/
Themes:
State-sponsored forced labor
Poverty
Systemic oppression
For-profit carceral programs / corporations
LGBTQ rights
Systemic oppression and racism
Misogyny and racism in the legal system
White supremacy
Sexual assault
DV and IPV
Power dynamics
Education access
Government corruption
Housing
Foster care and the child welfare system
Transportation
Police and Media biased coverage / investigations
Addictions
Reproductive rights and healthcare access
Food insecurity and nutrition
13th - documentary - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5895028/
Themes:
State-sponsored forced labor in prisons
Systemic white supremacy
Carceral and legal systems
This Adventure Called California (2021) - documentary - https://www.treeclimbermedia.org/this-adventure-called-california.html
Themes:
Labor Trafficking
Immigrant Rights
Construction Industry
California's Forgotten Children (2023) - documentary - https://www.californiasforgottenchildren.com/
Themes:
Foster Care to Trafficking Pipeline
Domestic Violence and Child Abuse
Familial Trafficking
Child Trafficking
Homelessness
Poverty
Systemic Racism and Misogyny / White Supremacy
Very Young Girls (2007) - documentary - https://www.imdb.com/video/vi1620165401/
Themes:
Legal system wrongly prosecuting teenagers who’ve been trafficked
Systemic Racism and Misogyny / White Supremacy
Carceral system
Poverty and youth homelessness
Black Girl Missing (2023) - scripted feature - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26453917/
Themes:
Racism in the media and policing
White supremacy
Missing children
Internet grooming