Credit: Walt Disney Studios / Angel StudiosA film once canceled by The Walt Disney Company is taking the box office by storm, surpassing Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023). But experts warn that the film, initially owned by 20th Century Fox but ultimately produced by Angel Studios, is nothing short of dangerous propaganda.
Allegedly based on a true story, Sound of Freedom (2023) stars Jim Caviezel (best known for The Passion of the Christ) as Tim Ballard, a high-ranking government agent sent to Colombia to stop child trafficking. Directed by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde and produced by Eduardo Verastegui, the film boasts a 76 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Even former President Donald Trump is a fan, planning to screen Sound of Freedom on his golf course.
So what’s wrong with the objectively true message: “Human trafficking is bad?” Well, anti-trafficking experts say Sound of Freedom is doing more harm than good. Rolling Stone called it a “QAnon fantasy,” written to appeal to the “conspiracy-addled boomer.” Many likened it to propaganda for “Pizzagate” believers. (The Pizzagate conspiracy went viral during the 2016 presidential election. A man who believed Hillary Clinton was part of an undercover pedophilia ring fired a gun inside the pizzeria he believed to be the center of the secret operation.)
This week, real-life Tim Ballard left Operation Underground Railroad, the anti-trafficking organization he founded. The group is controversial for proclaiming that the Mexican border leads to child trafficking (debunked by experts) and stories of the elite owning child sex slaves, a belief shared with QAnon truthers.
Ballard and, by extension, Sound of Freedom offer a narrative about trafficking that experts warn could harm actual victims. A fellow Mormon who previously worked with Ballard recently spoke out in Slate, expressing regret for their work together. The author participated in one of Operation Underground Railroad’s so-called “raids” and later learned that the trafficked children they traumatized with a gunfight were returned to captivity a week later because authorities couldn’t care for them. But they made Ballard look like a hero.
“All those kids in 2014 got from us was a soda and a swim – and Ballard came out ahead in the deal,” she wrote.
Real anti-trafficking work, the author learned, is not a dramatic battle where heroes bust through the door. It’s a process of systematic change:
Anti-trafficking work is not a punch-pow battle between good and evil. It means finding kids who are being trafficked and getting them into comprehensive aftercare. It means actively creating a world where fewer and fewer kids are trafficked—the consistent labor of prevention. It’s passing safe harbor, affirmative defense, and vacatur laws, designed to provide safe transitions for victims or help them avoid the criminal justice system. Anti-trafficking work is providing support for gay and trans kids kicked out of their homes and therefore exposed to heightened risk of being trafficked. It’s pushing for racial justice. It’s writing and voting for policies that provide a safety net and economic certainty.
But Ballard denies claims that he’s pushing a QAnon conspiracy. His fans have brushed off Sound of Freedom critics as pedophile defenders.
“The kids are real, what happened to them is real,” Ballard said in a New York Post interview. “All the bad guys and the good guys are real.”
More on Sound of Freedom (2023)
Despite criticism, Sound of Freedom has grossed over $50 million at the box office. Some of the film’s success can be attributed to Angel Studios’ “Pay it Forward” program, which sponsors moviegoers who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford a trip to the theater.
“Sound of Freedom, based on the incredible true story, shines a light on even the darkest of places,” the official film description reads. “After rescuing a young boy from ruthless child traffickers, a federal agent learns the boy’s sister is still captive and decides to embark on a dangerous mission to save her. With time running out, he quits his job and journeys deep into the Colombian jungle, putting his life on the line to free her from a fate worse than death.”
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