Nefarious: Merchant of Souls
"Nefarious" was written, directed, produced and narrated by Benjamin Nolot, founder and president of Exodus Cry, the film's distributor. Nolot, who travelled to 19 countries to collect the film's content, said that the purpose of the film is "to draw people's attention to the issue, but also to inspire them in terms of what they can be doing … to take a stand against this injustice." The film was officially released on July 27, 2011, with individual grassroots screenings also taking place. Laila Mickelwait, Exodus Cry's director of awareness and prevention, screened the film in several countries in an attempt to persuade governments to make laws similar to Sweden's "Sex Purchase Act", which criminalizes the purchasing rather than the selling of sex. The film was released on home video on May 1, 2012.
Mamoun Hassan
Mamoun Hassan was born in Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. He was head of production of the British Film Institute from 1971, in which post he continued the BFI's "radical" policy of supporting low-budget experimental films; he assisted the director Bill Douglas by securing crew and funding to make "The Bill Douglas Trilogy" (1972–78), and financially supported the production of "Winstanley" (1975). After leaving the BFI he taught at the National Film and Television School at Beaconsfield, then in 1979 he became managing director of the National Film Finance Corporation. In this position he backed the film "Babylon" (1980), and again helped Douglas in the production of "Comrades" (1986). Despite the "brave funding choices" and renewed creativity of the NFFC under Hassan, it was abolished in 1985. Since then he has worked as a film producer, screenwriter, consultant, lecturer and teacher in the field of cinema.