Feature Film Project
BETWEEN SEA AND SKY
WHY WE WANT TO MAKE THIS FILM
The United Nations Commission documents that 1.5 to 2 million children each year are subjected to rape, sexual abuse, kidnapping, starvation, forced labor and forced prostitution. Yet much of the focus has too often been on the crime and punishment aspects; the rooting out of the traffickers; and the prosecution of pedophiles in their worldwide self protective subculture. We rarely see the faces and hear the stories of the children. And it is these voices that will move us to action more than the apprehension and prosecution of the criminals.
OUR FILM
The story is based on the life of Berkshire artist, Jeanet T. Ingalls. Her mother was a drug addict and prostitute. From the age of three, Jeanet was running the streets of a small city in the southern Philippines with a small gang of kids, many the children of prostitutes and addicts. They robbed, pick-pocketed, waded in polluted drainage canals looking for coins, ate out of garbage cans and did anything else to be able to survive. Some of the children were sold by pimps to tourists. Some like Jeanet fought and ran away to avoid capture. Jeanet saw the traffickers kidnapping her friends. Most of them never returned. Some of those that did became sexual predators themselves.
Between Sea and Sky is the story of Jeanet and these kids. It will be told from the POV of the children. We want tell the story of their day to day lives: the endless search for food and money; the games they played with each other as children and the games they played as abuser and victim; the predators offering food, the promise of adoption, a better life, easy money; the kidnappings of friends and the trauma around their disappearance; the relationship with mothers and fathers too stoned, too drunk, too brutal to care for their children who often become the misplaced targets of their parents rage and frustration.
WHERE WE ARE AND WHY WE NEED YOUR HELP
Jeanet's childhood has haunted her. Like many victims, she could barely talk about her childhood and in fact, was filled with shame. She realized that she was one of the lucky ones. She got out. She realizes that the only way for her to overcome her past is to tell her story in behalf of the children, everywhere, that did not. To let her voice become their voice. The film is the first step in establishing a foundation that will advocate for children's rights.
Jeanet has recently reconnected with her long lost relatives and has discovered that they are all members of a prominent political family (view photos). They have offered their help. Every dollar will help fund the research and development of the film and insure that Jeanet and award winning screenwriter, Stephen Glantz will travel to Jeanet's hometown to conduct interviews, shoot locations and retrace the steps of her childhood. They will be accompanied by cinematographer, Richard Sands who will create a video diary of the process to use as a tool to help raise production funds. Stephen's recent book, CLARA'S WAR, published by Harper Collins, has been translated into 17 languages and was named a Sophie Brody Honor Book by the American Library Association.
