New York Filmmaker, Pearl Gluck, Launches Kickstarter Campaign to Bring Awareness to Domestic Sex Trafficking

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My goal in this film is to combine the integrity of a documentary project with the dramatic possibilities of a fiction film. The research inspired not only the script of the fiction film but also the choice of location and casting.

Athens, OH (PRWEB) June 20, 2014

Two weeks ago, State of Ohio Representative Teresa Fedor's "End Demand Act" passed the Senate unanimously. This piece of legislation was committed to reducing the illicit “consumer” demand for sex trafficking along with other important provisions to combat this crime. Key provisions of the End Demand Act include increased penalties for the solicitation of minors; no longer requiring minors to prove force, fraud or coercion; applying Rape Shield laws to victims of human trafficking and increasing the statute of limitations. The passage follows the successfully enacted “Safe Harbor” Act, House Bill 262, which provides a safe haven and needed services for victims as well as increasing penalties for traffickers.

Concurrently, New York Filmmaker, Visiting Assistant Professor of Film at Penn State University, State College, Pearl Gluck, has been running a 30 day kickstarter campaign thru Saturday, June 28th to raise at least $18,000 and produce her feature film, “The Turn Out”. The film is about a trucker who tries to save the life of a girl who is being sex trafficked at a local truck stop in Ohio.

“My goal in this film is to combine the integrity of a documentary project with the dramatic possibilities of a fiction film. The research inspired not only the script of the fiction film but also the choice of location and casting,” said Gluck.

While at Ohio University, Gluck, conducted extensive documentary research with local judges, legislators, survivors of sex trafficking and truckers to get an understanding of the situation in southeast Ohio. Gluck was awarded an Ohio University Research Council grant for this project. She also recently conducted an interview with Rep. Fedor and the discussion will be part of the investigative documentary.

In The Turn Out, the main character is not the perpetrator, he did not kidnap the girl, nor is he trafficking her. He is not the victim either. Rather, it is the story of the bystander. He is a lonely truck driver, a less than heroic, everyday man, who comes to the excruciating realization that he is an active part of a sex trafficking ring when he unknowingly engages with an underage victim. The film examines the choices he makes once he is aware of the situation. The film also questions the role of those who are unwitting witnesses to the disturbing reoccurrence night after night. By the end of the film, the trucker is aware that he is, in fact, culpable and could play an essential role in prevention. He goes from being a bystander to being an upstander, a person who recognizes that something is wrong and does something about it.

To help support the production of “The Turn Out” and an end to human trafficking please donate to Gluck’s kickstarter campaign at http://kck.st/1nGNyRV. She has currently reached $11,661 of her $18,000 goal and pledges will be accepted thru 12pm EST, Saturday, June 28th.

About Pearl Gluck:
Pearl Gluck was awarded a 2000 Sundance Producer’s Lab fellowship and a 2001 Sundance Festival mentorship for her first documentary film. Her work has been broadcast on the Sundance Channel, PBS and abroad. Theatrically, her films have premiered at the Film Forum in New York and art houses around the country. Her films have played at international and local festivals such as Oberhausen, Cannes, Tribeca Film Festival, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and the New York Video Festival at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Gluck gives special thanks to Rep. Teresa Fedor, Judge Paul Herbert, Rebecca Miller, Barbara Freeman, Vanessa Perkins, and the truckers who have been raising awareness and changing legislation.

For more information, please contact:
Pearl Gluck
pearl(at)palinkapictures.com
646-247-7329

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