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School of Communication >> Opel Home>>Media | |
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Action! Young filmmaker brings the light.Plight of child-trafficking victims fires up Kaitlyn Summerill to make documentary.
See Shed No Tears Trailer at: www.unseenstories.com But between her junior and senior years, she studied documentary film in London. Then she watched "Invisible Children," a video about child soldiers in Uganda. Her plans suddenly changed. She now wanted to wed her love of film with her passion for social justice. Just months after graduating, the 22-year-old Summerill joined with two other people from Element 3 Church and flew off to Benin, a country in West Africa, to make a film about child trafficking. Today, her 74-minute documentary, "Shed No Tears," will be premiered in the Huge Classroom Building (HCB) at FSU. "There were times when it felt like an impossible task," said Summerill. "I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't in control — God was." Andy Opel, director of the media production program at FSU, said he remembers Summerill as someone with a strong religious background who was motivated to do "tangible good work." "She took an interest in documentary film and used it to go out there and uncover and explore an issue," he said. "I'm impressed that she was able to pull it off, but I'm not surprised." Sarah Mac, a Tallahassee musician and a member of Element 3 Church, has followed Summerill's progress over the past three years, helping her raise money and spread the word about the project. Last year, she joined Summerill for a three-week return trip to Benin. "I watched the trailer for (the film) at our church last Sunday and by the end of it I was weeping," Mac said. "It was so cool to see it all come together." Human trafficking is a common problem not only in other countries, but in the United States, said Robin Thompson, a senior project director at the FSU Center for the Advancement of Human Rights. She and Summerill have been on panels discussing human trafficking and the center is co-sponsoring tonight's premiere. "It's a great public service and a moving work of film," said Thompson, who has seen parts of the documentary. When Thompson first reported on human trafficking in Florida in 2004, reporters had a hard time believing it was actually happening. "Their questions illustrated to me that awareness (alone) is a big issue," she said. Every year, 17,500 people — about 80 percent women and children — are trafficked from other countries to the United States, Thompson said. Numbers in Florida are hard to document, but some cases are reported to the Department of Children and Families. Immigrants, runaways and individuals from other vulnerable populations can end up as victims. Thompson said she was heartened that a young woman such as Summerill would take on this social problem. Harrowing stories Summerill grew up in Seattle, but moved to Miami when she was 10. Her father shot videos for a mission agency, taking Summerill with him to Mexico and Central America. They'd visit places such as orphanages. Summerill operated the camera. After deciding to focus on documentaries in her senior year at FSU, Summerill and Todd Chessum, a pastor at Element 3, discussed what kind of film they could make. Soon they were joined by another church member, Jen Abreu. The threesome chose human trafficking after talking with Carmen Morris, a woman from Miami who had started an organization in Benin to help child victims. Without knowing exactly what they'd do when they got there, they decided to go to Benin for six months to interview people about the issue. The first month, they never ventured farther than a small village. The chief would send two teenage boys to them everyday to help them out. "We were clueless about what we were doing," Summerill said. "We just ate, slept, studied and planned." But eventually, they made contacts with village leaders, church organizations and others. They ended up talking with 45 people, including child and adult victims, former traffickers and community activists. Hearing the victims' stories took a toll on Summerill. "Some of them had a hard time articulating what had happened to them," she said. "It was still too fresh." One of the girls, Ruphine, who is featured in the film, was more talkative. During the first interview, she spoke for 45 minutes straight, relating detail after detail of her seven years of captivity. Her father had left her with a woman in the city when she was four. As soon as her father left, the woman began to beat her. Summerill said she was glad she didn't understand the language at the time (people spoke French or a village dialect). Watching the emotional responses was enough. Back to Benin The film follows three victims — Ruphine 14, Bertin, 15, and Zenaba, 35. What emerges from their stories is that the major villain is poverty. It's the reason parents allow their children to be taken — parents believe their children will be given an education and food. Jobs and education are in the villages are almost nonexistent. Instead, the trafficked children are shuttled from place to place, losing contact with their families and forced to work for no compensation. Many are beaten for small infractions, such as sleeping late or not selling a quota of goods. The film also highlights efforts to rescue these children, including the Italian nun who runs a dormitory and school and the village leader who organizes community groups to stop trafficking. Summerill is determined to do more than raise awareness with the film. "I want to be the conduit between people here who want to get involved with people there on the ground," she said. On her website, www.unseenstories.com, she lists four organizations doing work in Benin. She encourages people to give of their time, money or talent to the organizations. She herself has continued to work on the issue. In the summer of 2009, while she was still working on the full-length film, she went back to Benin to show a short-animated film about child trafficking. She and Abreu brought six people from Tallahassee and one person from England with them. They broke up into two teams, showing the film in 30 villages throughout the country. The film was targeted at parents and children. The response was overwhelmingly positive. "One woman shook my hand so hard I thought it was going to fall off," Summerill said. Over the past three years, despite Chessum and Abreu quitting the project and taking jobs in other places, Summerill has persevered, editing more than 70 hours of film. Since 2007, the project has been funded by $65,000 in donations. Last year Summerill quit her part-time job at Chick-Fil-A and moved in with her sister in Seattle for five months so she could focus on completing the film. In the next couple of months she'll screen the video in Florida in classrooms, churches and for organizations. After the first of the year, she'll branch out to other states. But she'll also continue her social justice work in Benin. When she first visited the country, she was told that many people had come to make a film, but then never came back. Summerill promised that she would return. |
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