The Leeds Anti-Sex Trafficking Network (LAST) seeks to highlight the realities faced by trafficked women worldwide, and empower individuals and groups to take action against trafficking in their local communities.An estimated 2.5 million people are trafficked each year, of which 79% are trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation; the vast majority of which are women. There are around 4,000 trafficked women in the UK at any one time; brought here from a variety of countries such as the Ukraine, China and Brazil.However, behind each statistic is a person. A person who’s story often goes untold. LAST aims to tell these women’s stories in order to challenge demand and bring about social change.As part of the Leeds International Film Festival 2009, LAST presents a series of short films which go some way to shining a spotlight on the third largest criminal industry in the world. 10 Min. (Dir. Jorge Leon, Belgium 2009, 19 mins) - a chilling narrative of one women’s trafficking experience set to a series of provocative images.Bought & Sold (Dir. Gillian Caldwell, USA 1997, 42 mins) a documentary based on a two year undercover investigation into the illegal trafficking of women from the Former Soviet Republics, featuring interviews with traffickers, Russian mafia, trafficked women, and groups working to provide services to trafficked women.Echoes (Dir. Rob Brown, UK 2009, 11 mins) – a short fictional film about a female sex trafficker called Anya who faces a moral dilemma when she discovers that the young girl she is trafficking from Lithuania to London is pregnant.There are numerous organisations working to combat trafficking which LAST aims to promote and support through awareness-raising events and grassroots campaigns. If you would like to get involved with the work of LAST, please contact leedslast@googlemail.com
Search by category