Press for A Dance For Bethany-Bradenton Herald
    
Bradenton, FL--

Movie begins couple's crusade

Former Bradenton duo opening dialogue on human trafficking

By DONNA WRIGHT

Little did Yvonne and Marion Williams know that the film business they started three years ago would turn into a crusade against human sex-trafficking.

But as the Williams tell their story, "God had a plan."

At the time, the former Bradenton residents were living in Asheville, N.C., in a grand house on a mountain overlooking the city.

Yvonne Williams, an author with two published nonfiction books, had just finished her first screenplay - a story of a reporter who through her investigations of a prostitution ring helps a stripper, and consequently herself, find redemption.

"I set out to write a novel, but I literally heard a voice tell me to write a screenplay instead," she said. "It was God telling me what to do."

She took her screenplay west to sell it. But that didn’t happen. Discouraged and depressed, she returned to her L.A. hotel and collapsed on the bed and flicked on the TV to see Bill O'Reilly talking to Michele Gillen, a reporter for FOX-TV who has made a career of investigating the multibillion-dollar industry of human trafficking, a form of slavery that spans the globe.

Inspired, Yvonne realized that she was hearing the story she had written. She returned home and made a few adjustments to make her supporting character, Bethany, a victim of sex-traffickers.

And so the Williamses, after immersing themselves in the sordid details of a dark underworld from which few escape, decided to make the film themselves.

Marion Williams, a former supervisor at Tropicana and prison minister, cultivated investors, raising more than $1.2 million to produce the couple's first film.

His intent was to make money by producing the film, distributing it to theater chains, then securing a contract for a DVD and foreign distribution.

But once again, the Williamses said, "God intervened."

They realized their film was more than a story. Told without the gratuitous violence and shocking sex scenes of most films on human trafficking, "A Dance for Bethany" proved to be a catalyst, informing viewers of the problem and inspiring audiences to action, the couple said.

The potential for social change convinced the Williamses to change their for-profit film company to a nonprofit business aptly named Raise the Bar Productions. Their goal: to show the film in as many towns and cities as possible, then hold panel discussions on how communities can mobilize to stop human trafficking.

On Saturday, the Williamses will show "A Dance for Bethany" at 3 p.m. at Neel Auditorium. Then, Giselle Rodriguez, a victim advocate with the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking, will join the Williamses in an open discussion with the audience.

"Our goal is to not leave this community the way we found it," said Marion Williams. "We want to plant seeds and start an effort here to create a safe house for victims. We want to help make and keep this community safe."

Human trafficking victims are not just immigrants, the couple has found. Many are U.S. citizens, children and adolescents as well as adults. The average age of victims is 12.

Most are young girls forced into prostitution, stripping or into the Internet pornography business.

"It is believed that more than 40 percent of missing and runaway children in America end up as victims of human traffickers," Marion Williams said.

Rodriguez echoed the Williamses' concern.

One victim she helped rescue from forced sex labor was a young girl, a former runaway, who had witnessed the murder of another young woman who had tried to escape.

Florida, Rodriguez said, leads the nation in the number of trafficking cases now under investigation.

While the actual number of victims is hard to pin down, the U.S. State Department estimates that nearly 800,000 people are taken against their will each year with more than 20,000 victims being taken into the United States, with Florida being the leading entry point.

Other estimates place the number of victims as high 3 million.

Rodriguez had no figures for Manatee County, but she did recount a chilling story of one victim she rescued who was held captive in a Wimauma brothel two years ago.

The young woman was from Puerto Rico. After being promised a good job, she agreed to come to Tampa with her 3-year-old son. They were accompanied by someone from a trafficking network. At the Tampa International Airport, the woman was separated from her son. She was taken against her will to the brothel, where she was beaten and gang raped. Her captors told her if she tried to escape, her son, who had been taken to Daytona, would be killed.

But she did get away and, through Rodriguez, was united with her son, who also had been sexually abused by his captors.

"A Dance for Bethany" is already beginning to garner awards, winning best feature film at the Faith and Film Motion Picture Festival as well as the Redemptive Storyteller Award at the Redemption Film Festival.

Donna Wright, health and social services reporter, can be reached at 745-7049.Bottom of Form

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