Nefarious: Merchant of Souls
"Nefarious" was written, directed, produced, and narrated by Benjamin Nolot, founder and president of Exodus Cry. Exodus Cry, which distributed the film, is headquartered in Grandview, Missouri and is an organization that opposes human trafficking by raising awareness, by reintegrating victims back into society, and by prayer. Nolot founded Exodus Cry in 2007 after a woman he did not know gave him , saying that God told her to do so in order that Nolot might found an anti-human-trafficking organization. This was founded at a prayer meeting later that year where attendees prayed for human trafficking victims. The organization claims that this prayer meeting occurred on the day before the announcement of the 2007 international child pornography investigation, which involved approximately 2,400 human-trafficking-related arrests in 77 countries.
Benjamin Nolot
Nolot then wrote, directed, produced, and narrated "", a documentary film about human trafficking. He also conducted the interviews in the film, speaking with such people as a police officer and a pimp. Other scenes depict Nolot doing things like chasing a pedophile out of a town in which he was trying to purchase the right to sexually abuse a child. The film was distributed by Exodus Cry. "Nefarious" was Nolot's film debut. Filming started in 2007. Nolot travelled to 19 different countries to collect the film's content. These filming locations included countries in the Middle East, Europe, North America, and Asia. Nolot attested to having found producing the film difficult because of the subject matter; he stated that "there is not a day that goes by that I am not mindful of the horrific tragedies we uncovered". He further said that he did not make the film in order to make money or gain fame, but rather, to rouse people to action against human trafficking, an issue he finds both personal and important. Dan Preston of "Godculture Magazine" praised Nolot's writing and directing of the film. Nolot 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". At the 2011 California Film Awards, "Nefarious" made Nolot the Grand Winner in the Best First-Time Documentary category. At the 2012 Kingdomwood Christian Film Festival, Nolot was named Best Director.