Film Director Works to Educate Girls
Michael Cory Davis, a native New Yorker featured in the April issue of Glamour Magazine tackles the tragedy with his award-winning “Svetlana’s Journey.”
The organization Face to Face Bulgaria was assisted by Davis, born in Brooklyn to two Jamaican parents. The agency works to educate high-risk girls about human trafficking. Davis produced and directed the film to bring awareness in a true story.
You can order the DVD at facetoface.org.
‘Svetlana’s Journey’ is a story about stolen innocence,” according to the website. ‘Svetlana’s Journey’ compels you to want to put an end to human trafficking.”
After losing her mother and having no other family Sveti was forced to live in an orphanage and her dignity, dreams, and hopes were stripped from her, according to the film. According to staff the film was made to show society that the victims of forced prostitution are not the ones to be blamed for their fate but that it can happen to anyone, anywhere.
The film was also made to change the mind of any young girl who is getting involved in the industry, according to literature.
Svetlana was adopted at 13 to be sold to pimps. Soon after her adoption she was sold for 10,000 euro and transferred to the borders of the country of Bulgaria. After she jumped from a window of a building she was locked in, strapped down, and taken to a hospital and after that to the police.
In June 2004 at 14 Svetlana started to heal from the traumas from the experience with the non-government organization, Face to Face. For the first time Davis was in Bulgaria in November 2003.
‘In the letters that children sent to Face to Face there were so many tragic stories but when I read Svetlana’s I was so moved,” he said.
Davis said he has noticed that most people are actually not aware of the problems of forced prostitution and think the girls have caused their problems themselves.
The methods of the trafficants vary a lot, according to Nelly Cholashka, a writer who has covered the issue.
“There is not a single pimp who goes straight to a girl and says, ‘Hey, I want to make you a prostitute,'” she said. “Some of the girls really think that a good man will help them to study abroad and will pay for their education.”
“The problem can be solved by educating the adults,” said Davis in an article.
Together with the Face to Face team Davis also visited a lot of orphanages in Bulgaria.
“Svetlana’s Journey” was a short movie so that it could be aired on t.v.
Davis said it is clear that there is and always will be prostitution in the article.
Although Davis was accepted to numerous colleges for film production he decided it was best to continue on a hands-on experiential basis. In 1999 he left New York and moved to Los Angeles to further pursue his career as what he terms a ‘triple threat’ director and in 2003 while shooting two feature length films in Sofia, Bulgaria he learned of the growing number of young girls taken from Bulgaria and other Balkan countries and exploited as prostitutes.
