Anti-Trafficking Film Funder Found To Be Engaged in Child Trafficking

Warning for mentions of child abuse and trafficking.

Amid the Disney, Warner Bros., and Universal blockbuster hits this summer, one underground studio quietly released a film that’s been doing surprisingly well until now.

Because Disney owns several studio subsets, including Marvel, 20th Century Fox, and Pixar, they’re able to cover a wide variety of genres and topics within their films. Recently, Disney has been the subject of some backlash as fans have started to demand the studio leave moral pushing out of their movies and focus on just telling stories.

However, Disney passed on a highly controversial movie earlier this year that was then produced and released by Angel Studios. Sound of Freedom delivers a powerful message against child trafficking but has been primarily supported by religiously conservative fans, drawing criticisim from wider audiences. Part of the film’s marketing included offering “free” tickets for audiences, but the film ended up raking in over $155 million domestically since the film’s release at the beginning of July.

The film is a sort-of biopic that tells the story of Tim Ballard, real-life found of anti-trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad. Since the film’s release last month, it was revealed that Ballard left the organization after allegations were raised against him.

Unfortunately, it’s also recently been revealed that Fabian Marta, a major financier of the film, has been arrested on charges of child kidnapping. Marta had previously bragged on his social media accounts about helping fund the movie after it was passed over by Disney.

It’s reported that Marta groomed women and girls into all ages Sugar Baby/Sugar Daddy parties. It was also revealed that he follows several well-known QAnon accounts on X (formerly known as Twitter) as well as an account that recently posted child sexual abuse material.

Sound of Freedom and the real-life person and organization it’s based on have been surrounded by controversy and issues that just continue to get worse. It’s certainly not a good look for the movie that had such a strong message against that exact scenario. It’s also sadly ironic considering the crowd telling Disney to stay out of morals and focus on their movies, a criticism that Sound of Freedom received praise for.

Stay tuned for further updates on this situation.