Not My Life: A Documentary on Human Trafficking 

World Affairs Council of Las Vegas in collaboration with the World Affairs Council of America and Carlson & the Carlson Family Foundation, will present a special screening of the most recognized documentary on human trafficking, Not My Life. The showing will be followed by comments from and Q&A with the film’s Oscar-nominated director, Robert Bilheimer. 

Hailed as a “seminal” film by the CNN Freedom Project and others, Not My Life, filmed on five continents over a period of four years, is the first documentary to focus on human trafficking as a global, multi-faceted human rights abuse that exists in virtually every country in the world, including the United States. The film is a production of Worldwide Documentaries, a Bloomfield, NY based not-for-profit company whose president, Robert Bilheimer.  The film is narrated by Glenn Close.

Human trafficking, which is also described as modern slavery, is rapidly emerging as the 21^st century’s most prominent, pervasive, and complex human rights violation. In a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City last September, President Obama described human trafficking as “one of the great human rights causes of our time,” and called on the citizens of the United States to lead the fight against it. 

Though comprehensive data regarding human trafficking remains in short supply, experts in the field widely agree that it is an industry whose profits-- in the tens of billions of dollars—rank it with the trafficking of arms and narcotics. It is also widely agreed that globally, nearly 30 million people—many of them children—are victims of human trafficking crimes, although recent reports suggest that the numbers are, in all likelihood, much higher. 

In the United States, the human trafficking crimes predominantly involve the kidnapping, forced imprisonment, and sale of minors for sexual purposes.

Lack of awareness of human trafficking among the general public is acknowledged to be an important factor contributing to its proliferation. Acknowledging the critical role Not My Life is playing throughout the international human rights community in this regard, Robert Bilheimer, the film’s director says:  “We are of course pleased that the film is being so widely used, and are doing everything in our power to bring its message to our own community and to the world. But we are at the beginning of a very long journey, and it will take a sustained commitment from each and every one of us if we are to free those millions of human beings around the world whose lives have been so wrongfully taken from them.”   

WACLV would like to thank Las Vegas Mayor, Carolyn Goodman's office for allowing us to use the Las Vegas City Hall for our event (495 S. Main Street), the LVMPD Human Trafficking Task Force and all the organizations working to shed light on this atrocity, providing assistance to the affected and to bringing the perpetrators to justice.

When