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"When the largest child-prostitution ring bust in FBI history happened last summer, more than 100 American teens were rescued. Now documentarian Jane Wells, along with co-director John-Keith Wasson, is continuing to shed light on what she calls &amp;quot;America&amp;#x27;s dirty little secret&amp;quot; with the release of her film Tricked, which premieres December 13 at Quad Cinema in New York City. I talked with her about what it&amp;#x27;s really like to peek inside an industry that commercially exploits women and girls. Co-director Jane Wells (right) with trafficking survivor and star of the documentary Danielle Douglas GLAMOUR: Why did you want to make a film about human trafficking? JANE WELLS: Three or four years ago, I saw a news report that thousands of young people were being trafficked and thought, How could it be true? So I decided to investigate further, and I started to uncover how bad and pervasive the trafficking of American youth was. I met Danielle Douglas [a survivor of sex trafficking and star of the documentary] and I interviewed her, and I just got very passionate about it. GLAMOUR:Where did you meet Danielle? How did you guys come into contact? JW: I met her through an organization called the Polaris Project [a nonprofit that works to combat and prevent modern-day slavery and human trafficking]. And I had gone to them in Washington, D.C., and their CEO and executive director, Bradley Myles, took me on a guided tour of what trafficking looked like in the nation&amp;#x27;s capital. We spent a couple of nights cruising around looking at the street prostitution and filming a bit. He&amp;#x27;s the one who suggested I talk to Danielle, and it was a pretty amazing story she had. I really based the film on her story. GLAMOUR: The fact that she was &amp;quot;boyfriended in&amp;quot; (which is when traffickers seek out women and start dating them until, one day, they persuade their &amp;quot;girlfriend&amp;quot; to prostitute) is so interesting to me. She was a college student. I don&amp;#x27;t think most people realize this can happen to anyone. JW: I have college-age daughters, and I could really identify as a mother that this could be my child. And even the idea of &amp;quot;boyfriending in&amp;quot; is something that I think most of us can understand on some level or another. GLAMOUR: How did you get the pimps to talk to you on camera? I assume they&amp;#x27;d be wary of doing that. JW: They don&amp;#x27;t really think that they&amp;#x27;re risking much in terms of the law coming after them. I have to say, some of the penalties that are going down for pimping in this country are much harsher than they were even a year or two ago. You hear about pretty stiff sentences. But there aren&amp;#x27;t enough for it to really impact the street culture. One of the pimps said, &amp;quot;If I were to deal drugs and I got caught, I&amp;#x27;d be looking at double digits&amp;amp;#8212;meaning that he&amp;#x27;d get at least 10 years in jail. He felt that if anything happened around the prostitution, he&amp;#x27;d probably get a suspended sentence. GLAMOUR: Were there any other sort of surprises or challenges when you were filming this? JW: I found filming on the streets of Chicago to be more disturbing and more terrifying than [when I was] in an African war zone. It felt very sinister and very, very disturbing to be out there. I was also surprised by how cavalier the johns&amp;amp;#8212;the men who pay to have sex with the women&amp;amp;#8212;we interviewed were, their absolute refusal, inability to see that they inflicted harm on the women they bought. I found it very difficult to do those interviews... GLAMOUR: I remember one pimp said &amp;quot;All women suck d*ck, might as well get paid for it,&amp;quot; or something like that. JW: Yeah, it&amp;#x27;s pretty hard as a woman to sit there and listen to that and to be professional and journalistic. It was hard to not tell them how much I despise them. GLAMOUR: What do you want the audience to take away from seeing the film? JW: I hope people walk away, first, realizing it really is happening in America. And the other thing I feel pretty strongly about is that I think we need to get the message out to...purchasers of sex, especially at the high end, that they are part of a massive human-rights abuse. GLAMOUR: How can Glamour readers help? JW: Survivor-led victim services seem to be very effective; the Polaris Project and Shared Hope International are also effective anti-trafficking organizations. And when it comes time to vote, vote for a proactive district attorney. They have to give money to the police to support their investigative work. They have to be prepared to take the pimps or the johns to trial and to not take the women to trial. To have real change and have to happen at the judicial level we need to be more informed about who we select when we vote. Want to learn more? Check out the Tricked trailer here: TRICKED TRAILER from 3 Generations on Vimeo."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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