International Justice Mission and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship held a showing of “Nefarious, Merchant of Souls” Thursday in the Newcomb Ballroom. The documentary examines modern-day sex trafficking and interviews a series of women who were previously trafficked in sex trade along with humanitarian workers, reformed trafficking members and psychologists.
Arts and Entertainment spoke with fourth-year College student Patricia Stewart, president of International Justice Mission, and Intervarsity’s outreach coordinator, fourth-year College student Stephen Rowe, to get an inside look at the event.
Arts and Entertainment: Why did you choose to show this film?
Patricia Stewart: [I heard about this film through] word of mouth; we've screened lots of documentaries, but this one relates back to America and is very educational. We had Clemons purchase this documentary so anyone can rent it as well.
Stephen Rowe: This documentary is done excellently and meets the audience at the level it’s at, ties it to everyday life, and brings it back home. Part of my job is to help our chapter to act in a way that is effective and sustainable, and I thought this documentary was a great springboard to get people talking and get people connected in action.
A&E: What was your purpose in partnering with IV for this event?
PS: We had heard IV was interested in screening the documentary, and we know IV is a fellowship that has a heart for justice issues, and we thought, since they already had an interest in it, it was a perfect way for us to align our passions.
A&E: What impact do you hope seeing the film had on IV, IJM and community members in attendance?
PS: What "Nefarious" hit well on is the influence culture has on shaping our world. We want to actually affect change and expose the reality of things that are connected that people might not have thought are connected. For example, thinking there is no relation between pornography and the sex trade, and assumptions such as "prostitution is a choice." Awareness is the starting point and from there minds are changed and action starts.
SR: Injustice affects people on four different levels, so we want our response in Intervarsity to affect people on four different levels as well. Injustice affects the individual personally, relationally, which in turns affects the community [the communal level], and systemically, because there are whole systems at play.
We want our response to be an individual response, for people to ask themselves, "What can I do personally? Am I using my resources in ways that are investing in initiatives that are pursuing freedom or [that are] exploiting people?"
We want people to recognize [that] where there is porn there is prostitution and where there is prostitution there is trafficking. We want people to recognize their personal involvement in these systems.
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