I AM JANE DOE, Documentary Chronicling Mothers' Battle Against

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

I AM JANE DOE, Documentary Chronicling Mothers' Battle Against

FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION March 22, 2018 CONTACT: Jen Willey, Communications Director 253.284.5419 | [email protected] I AM JANE DOE, Documentary Chronicling Mothers’ Battle Against Child Sex Trafficking, Screens at The Grand Cinema on April 11 Tacoma, Wash.—Annie Wright Schools, in partnership with Washington Trafficking Prevention, Pierce County Coalition Against Trafficking, Destiny House Restoration Center, and Rebuilding Hope! Sexual Assault Center’s Sex Trafficking Response & Awareness Program of WA, and the Salvation Army are proud to sponsor the documentary I am Jane Doe at Tacoma’s Grand Cinema on Wednesday, April 11, at 6:30 pm. Narrated by Academy Award-nominated actor Jessica Chastain and directed by former Olympian and lawyer Mary Mazzio, the film chronicles the battle of mothers on behalf of their middle school daughters, who were victims of sex trafficking on the adult classified web site Backpage.com. The film follows the journey of three families as they sue Backpage.com and includes interviews with victims, journalists, legislators and bi-partisan US Senators including John McCain. Erik Bauer, a Tacoma-based lawyer whose work against child sex trafficking features in the documentary, will introduce the film and take questions afterward. Tickets are free to the community on a first-come, first-served basis and may be reserved in advance at traffickingprevention.org/janedoe. Called “a gripping legal thriller” by Esquire, “a powerful call to action” by The Los Angeles Times and “viscerally emotional” by The Washington Post, I AM JANE DOE runs 99 minutes. This film is part of Annie Wright Schools’ Night Out@The Grand program. Learn more at www.aw.org/grand. Founded in Tacoma, Washington, in 1884, Annie Wright Schools serve students from age three through high school. Annie Wright Lower and Middle Schools offer co-ed programs in Preschool through Grade 8, while separate Upper Schools for boys and girls offer day and boarding options in Grades 9 through 12. Annie Wright is proud to be an International Baccalaureate World School. Learn more at www.aw.org. - ### - Visit 827 N Tacoma Ave, Tacoma WA 98403 | Call 253.272.2216 | Email [email protected] | Learn www.aw.org .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Child Sex Trafficking
THIS GUIDE WAS PREPARED BY: Elizabeth Swanson, Ph.D. Professor, Literature and Human Rights Arts and Humanities Division, Babson College 2017 T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S PART I: INTRODUCTION 1-22 Director’s Statement 1-2 About Trafficking 3-6 About Backpage.com 7-9 About the Jane Doe Cases 10-13 About the Communications Decency Act 14-16 Related Cases: Precedents 17-18 Amending the CDA 19-22 PART II: TEACHING GUIDE 23-54 Commercial Sexual EXploitation and Child Sex Trafficking 23-30 Gender Socialization and Social Media 31-37 Social Media and Girls 33-34 “Porn Culture” and Boys 34-35 Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender Youth 35-37 Freedom of Speech and Online Commerce 38-42 Stakeholder Analysis 42-49 The Jane Does and their Families 43 Law Enforcement 44-45 Congress & the Courts 45-46 Corporations & Alternative Newspapers 47-48 Non-governmental Organizations 48-49 Witness, Testimonial, and Empowerment 50-54 PART III: APPENDICES 55-64 AppendiX I: I Am Jane Doe Timeline 55-57 AppendiX II: Classroom Role-Play EXercise 57-59 AppendiX III: Classroom Research Resources by Topic 60-64 P A R T I: I N T R O D U C T I O N DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT Statement of the Director of I AM JANE DOE, Mary Mazzio It’s after midnight and your daughter hasn’t come home. You don’t know where she is. Her friends don’t know where she is. You wait until 5AM and then call the police.
[Show full text]
DISCUSSION GUIDE I Am Jane
DISCUSSION GUIDE I Am Jane Doe Release Date: February 10, 2017 (USA) Director: Mary Mazzio Narrator: Jessica Chastain Genre: Documentary Length: 1 hour and 38 minutes NR: Contains disturbing scenes SYNOPSIS In the documentary, I Am Jane Doe, filmmaker Mary Mazzio discloses the hidden truth about Backpage.com, an online classified website that, along with information about bikes for sale and apartments for rent, runs a thriving internet-enabled site for trafficking in abducted or runaway girls duped into becoming sex workers. The Jane Does featured in the film include middle- school girls from Boston, a 15-year-old violinist from Seattle, and a precocious 13-year-old girl from St. Louis. They speak truthfully to the camera about their ordeals, focusing on the psychological effects of their experiences rather than the appalling details of their abduction and the countless rapes they endured. The film chronicles a handful of mothers and fathers who, after rescuing their daughters, begin an uphill battle to take down one pillar of the child sex industry—Internet sex ads. Their greatest obstacle is Section 230 of the 1996 CATHOLIC SOCIAL THOUGHT Communications Decency Act that stipulates that online service providers cannot be held liable for third-party THEMES IN THE FILM content: “No provider or user of an interactive computer • Human Dignity service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any • Common Good information provided by another information content • Rights and Responsibilities provider.” In short, if someone sells a 13-year-old, Backpage.com claimed, the website is not responsible. • Call to Community and Participation Court after court has ruled in favor of Backpage’s First • Solidarity Amendment rights.
[Show full text]
Impact Report the Sedona Forum Award for Courage and Leadership
impact report 2017 The Sedona Forum Award for Courage and Leadership Next Generation Leaders Combatting Human Trafficking Human Rights And Democracy Global Rule of Law and Governance Events Leadership Training 5-Year Highlights LEADERSHIP TRAINING MCCain Institute at arizona state university 1 THE MISSION Guided by values that have animated the career of Senator John McCain and the McCain family for generations, ASU’s McCain Institute is a non- partisan do-tank dedicated to advancing message from character-driven global leadership based on security, economic opportunity, freedom and human dignity – in the United States our Executive Director and around the world. Dear Friends, It my great pleasure to present to you • Our Global Rule of Law and as U.S. Special Representative for the McCain Institute’s annual Impact Governance program has also Ukraine Negotiations. I continue to Report. The following pages outline experienced compelling growth, lead the Institute while volunteering Board of Trustees our most significant accomplishments already attracting considerable my efforts to establish peace and in 2017. funding in grants in its first full year restore Ukraine’s sovereignty and of operations. territorial integrity. Although Ukraine Kelly Ayotte Robert Day David H. Petraeus The year marked the Institute’s continues to suffer, I am pleased that David Berry Phil Handy Lynn Forester de Rothschild fifth anniversary. Since its launch The McCain Institute is proud to be our efforts have raised awareness of in 2012, the Institute has achieved part of Arizona State University, which the ongoing conflict, clarified U.S. Don Brandt Sharon Harper Rick Shangraw growth and impact well beyond our under the leadership of Dr.
[Show full text]
OPENING DAY ANNOUNCEMENT Philadelphia AMC Loews Cherry
OPENING DAY ANNOUNCEMENT I Am Jane Doe, the powerful new I AM JANIE A DMO EJ ANE DdocumentaryOE film written and directed by OPENING IN THEATERS OPENING IN THEATERS Mary Mazzio, narrated by Academy-Award February 10, 2and017 Golden Globe nominee Jessica Chastain February 10, 2017 ~ (Zero Dark Thirty, Miss Sloane), and produced by Mazzio and Academy-Award NY, LA, DC, Seattle Boston & Philadenomineelphia Alec Sokolow (Toy Story), ~ ~ chronicles the epic battle that several NY, LA, DCIn, S peaartttnleers hip wAmericaith n mothers are waging on behalf of Boston & PhilaAMdelCp hTihae atetheirrs under-age daughters who were bought and sold for sex on Backpage.com, the adult classifieds section that for years was part of the iconic Village Voice. I Am Jane Doe follows the journey of these young girls and their mothers who have filed law suits against Backpage, setting these children on a collision course not only with the owners of Backpage, but with judges, powerful companies, special interest groups, and Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act, an internet freedom law that has been interpreted by federal judges to provide a safe haven for website publishers to advertise underage girls for sex. These cases have, thus far, not gone well for these Jane Doe children, but have sparked a political movement and a Senate Investigation. I Am Jane Doe shines a light on child sex-trafficking, a gut-wrenching reality that affects every community in America, debunking the myth that this crime only happens in developing countries. v New York AMC Empire 25 Times Square, 234 West 42nd Street v Los Angeles AMC Universal Citywalk Stadium 19 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City CA v Washington, D.C.
[Show full text]
Mary Mazzio Bio
MARY MAZZIO BIO Mary Mazzio, an award-winning documentary film director, Olympic athlete, and former law firm partner, is Founder and CEO of 50 Eggs, Inc., an independent film production company dedicated to making socially impactful films. Mary wrote, directed and produced the highly-acclaimed films Underwater Dreams, TEN9EIGHT, The Apple Pushers, A Hero for Daisy, Contrarian, Apple Pie, and Lemonade Stories. Her last documentary film, I AM JANE DOE, narrated by Academy Award nominee, Jessica Chastain, opened in select cities with AMC Theatres in 2017 and is now on Netflix. The film has catalyzed (on a bipartisan basis) legislation signed by the President in 2018. • I AM JANE DOE, narrated by Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain, directed by award- winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, and produced by Mazzio along with Academy Award nominee Alec Sokolow, chronicled the battle that several mothers across the country waged against Backpage.com, the largest online portal for commercial sex. Called “a gripping legal thriller” (Esquire); “a powerful call to action” (The Los Angeles Times); “the rare social-issue documentary that has an effect on a social issue” (The Washington Post); “especially impressive... a powerful piece of work” (Elle); “striking... powerful” (The Film Journal), I AM JANE DOE has captured not only the attention of film critics, but an avalanche of popular press as well (e.g. The New Yorker, Esquire, Cosmo, Vogue, NBC Nightly News, a three-part story in People), providing a remarkable opportunity for culture shift, impact, and awareness, particularly with respect to the under-reported crime of child sex-trafficking. More importantly, the film has catalyzed extraordinary activity, including new legislation (on a bipartisan basis) signed by the President in the spring of 2018; investigative reporting into the links between Google and Backpage; and a federal criminal probe of Backpage executives, resulting in a 93-count indictment.
[Show full text]
AFS Year 7 Slate MASTER
AFS YEAR 7 FILM SLATE "1 AFS 2018-2019 FILM THEMES *Please note that this thematic breakdown includes documentary features, documentary shorts, animated shorts and episodic documentaries American Arts & Culture Entrepreneurism Chasing Trane! Blood, Sweat & Beer! Gentlemen of Vision! Chef Flynn! Honky Tonk Heaven: Legend of the Dealt! Broken Spoke! Ella Brennan: Commanding the Table! Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings Good Fortune! More Art Upstairs! Knife Skills! Moving Stories! New Chefs on the Block! Obit! One Hundred Thousand Beating Hearts! Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan! Human Rights Score: A Film Music Documentary! STEP! A Shot in the Dark! All-American Family! Disability Rights Bending the Arc! A Shot in the Dark! Cradle! All-American Family! Edith + Eddie! Cradle! I Am Jane Doe! Dealt! The Prosecutors! I’ll Push You! Unrest! Pick of the Litter! LGBTQI Reengineering Sam! Served Like a Girl! In A Heartbeat! Unrest! The S Word: Opening the Conversation Stumped# About Suicide! Stumped! "2 Mental Health Awareness Sports Cradle! A Shot in the Dark! Served Like a Girl! All-American Family! The S Word: Opening the Conversation Baltimore Boys! About Suicide! Born to Lead: The Sal Aunese Story! The Work! Boston: The Documentary! Unrest! Down The Fence! We Breathe Again! Run Mama Run! Skid Row Marathon! The Natural World and Space Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird A Plastic Ocean! Hamilton Above and Beyond: NASA’s Journey to STEM Tomorrow! Frans Lanting: The Evolution of Life! Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story! Mosquito! Dream Big:
[Show full text]
Mary Mazzio Bio
MARY MAZZIO BIO Mary Mazzio, director of the new documentary film I Am Jane Doe, hails from a highly accomplished and diverse background. Mazzio is a force to be reckoned with whether she’s navigating the Charles River in a rowing shell (she was a 1992 Olympian), negotiating a contract on Boston’s State Street (she is a former partner with the law firm Brown Rudnick) or collaborating with the White House to make a film that helped fund STEM education to the tune of $100 million dollars for under- represented students, as she did with her last film, Underwater Dreams. As a young lawyer, Mazzio represented indigent tenants facing eviction. She noticed a commonality in the issues facing her clients and decided she could be more effective bringing their stories to a wider audience through film. To that end, she left her law practice to pursue her new career as a filmmaker and founded 50 Eggs, Inc., an independent film production company dedicated to creating films with social impact. In all of Mazzio’s films, her mission is to shed light on compelling narratives of social significance, making her one of the country’s prominent filmmakers promoting stories of diversity. FILMOGRAPHY I Am Jane Doe (opening 2.10.17). The powerful new documentary feature film written and directed by Mazzio and narrated by Academy-Award nominee, Jessica Chastain, chronicles the epic battle several American mothers are waging on behalf of their under-age daughters who were bought and sold for sex through the adult classifieds section of Backpage.com (formerly owned for years by the iconic Village Voice.) Underwater Dreams, narrated by Michael Peña (The Martian, American Hustle), chronicles a team of undocumented Mexican high school boys who built an underwater robot, unexpectedly winning a national competition, and defeating MIT in the process.
[Show full text]
Understanding the Impact of Fosta
41816-nyu_94-6 Sheet No. 122 Side A 12/10/2019 14:44:50 \\jciprod01\productn\N\NYU\94-6\NYU604.txt unknown Seq: 1 6-DEC-19 15:24 NOTES TOO FAR AND NOT FAR ENOUGH: UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF FOSTA EMILY J. BORN* In early 2018, President Trump signed the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) into law. It was enacted mainly in response to failed civil suits against Backpage.com, a website accused of allowing, and even helping, users to post ads of sex trafficking victims. Plaintiffs, minors with ads for them posted on the website, were almost universally blocked by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which granted Backpage immunity for what its users post. FOSTA removes that immunity, as well as amends and adds federal offenses. The law has faced much criticism for going too far, but no one has yet asked if it goes far enough. In other words, would Backpage now lose the suits that could not have been filed before FOSTA? To evaluate the law’s impact, this Note reconsiders the infamous Doe v. Backpage case in light of FOSTA. After analyzing the law through analogous statutes and case law, this Note concludes the law is at most ambiguous as to its legal effect. Thus, not only is the law creating negative side effects for speech online and creating danger for sex workers, it may not even be achieving its legal objective. This Note looks at the widespread reaction to FOSTA, the self-regulation of many websites in response, and explores reasons for that reaction, including the law’s expressive effect.
[Show full text]
Albany Times Union
Film 'I Am Jane Doe' gives voice to the violated By Amy Biancolli Thursday, May 4, 2017 As an American, as a mother of two daughters and a son, and as a human being, I have to believe that child sex trafficking isn't legal in the United States. It can't be. How could it be? Every law on the books and in our collective guts says it isn't. That's obvious, right? Right. And yet minors have been sold regularly — repulsively, outrageously — in barely coded online classifieds at Backpage.com, which then managed to shrug off culpability by maintaining it had nothing to do with it. See, Backpage was only the host, or so it has claimed since becoming the main hub for online sex ads after Craigslist shuttered its "adult" section in 2010. What, that racy ad featuring an underage girl? Not the website's fault. Someone else uploaded it. It's a weak argument, but that never prevented the company from getting away with it. Thanks to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, the courts repeatedly allowed Backpage to shirk responsibility and slither back into a dank corner of online commerce where children are hawked like meat. This is the most startling revelation of Mary Mazzio's "I Am Jane Doe," a new documentary that opened theatrically earlier this year and is now poised to hit iTunes and Google Play on May 12 (and Netflix on May 26). I attended a screening and discussion — with Mazzio, attorney David Boies and broadcast journalist Soledad O'Brien — at the Hearst Tower in Manhattan a few weeks back, and I sat there dumbfounded.
[Show full text]
Defiant Lives HHH1/2 Greater Mysteries of the Human Brain, This (2017) 85 Min
November-December 2018 VOL. 33 THE VIDEO REVIEW MAGAZINE FOR LIBRARIES N O . 6 IN THIS ISSUE Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story | What Lies Upstream | Three Identical Strangers | The Mayo Clinic | Defi ant Lives | The S Word Spotlight Review Love & Bananas: freeing Noi Na takes viewers to the edge of An Elephant Story their seats, and there are unforeseen divi- HHH dends when the company’s owner begins to 1/2 regret what he has done to elephants. Bell (2018) 75 min. In has made a fine documentary, an inspiring Publisher/Editor: Randy Pitman English & Thai w/English subtitles. DVD: $24.95 portrait of compassion that also captures Associate Editor: Jazza Williams-Wood ($495 w/PPR from www. the fantastic bond between humans and loveandbananas.com/ Editorial Assistant: Christopher Pitman elephants. Extras include deleted scenes host-a-screening/). Cargo and the film’s soundtrack. Highly recom- Film & Releasing. Graphic Designer: Carol Kaufman mended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh) Marketing Director: Anne Williams Actress Ashley Bell (The Last Exorcism, Novitiate) directs this emotionally-charged documentary, serving Contributing Writers as a passionate onscreen advocate for ad- A fine companion dressing the sad state of the Asian elephant. documentary to Love & Bananas, filmmakers Sean Axmaker, Reviewer, While African elephants are estimated to Ben Bowie and Geoff Seattle Times, Turner Classic Movies Online, be just under a half-million in number, the Luck’s PBS-aired Nature Parallax View Asian variety is currently less than 50,000. It’s no wonder that the population is dwin- documentary Naledi: Kathleen C. Fennessy, Reviewer, ( dling, considering the tormented lives of One Little Elephant VL The Stranger Online-4/18) tells the these wondrous mammals (the film includes story of a newborn ele- Susan Granger, SSG Syndicate brief sickening footage of the prolonged tor- phant who arrives in a Botswana reserve Donald Liebenson, Reviewer, ture of a captured elephant being driven to called Abu Camp, a halfway house for Entertainment Weekly, Amazon.com madness and submission).
[Show full text]
An Exploration Into Popular and Problematic Trafficking Discourses
1 “You Are More”: An Exploration into Popular and Problematic Trafficking Discourses A Thesis presented by Kelcy J. Dolan to The Department of English In Partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Degree of Master of Arts in the field of English Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts April 2018 2 “You Are More”: An Exploration into Popular and Problematic Trafficking Discourses A thesis presented By Kelcy J. Dolan ABSTRACT OF THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts in English In the College of Social Sciences and Humanities of Northeastern University April 2018 3 Abstract “You Are More” is an attempt to analyze the current discourse concerning trafficked persons to establish the reoccurring problems that inevitably serve to hinder the progress in combatting human trafficking on a domestic and international scale. Under the framework of socio-narratology, genre studies, and oral history studies, “You Are More” claims that the ways our most public and accessible narratives present trafficked individuals are in need of revision. This piece looks at three different texts (The White Umbrella, Amirah’s advocacy website, and I Am Jane Doe) and discusses their success and failure in constructing a positive and beneficial portrayal of trafficked individuals. “You Are More” critiques these texts for their depictions which manipulate the life stories of trafficked persons to make them appear culpable, in need of saving and helpless. The argument is that this rhetoric actually stalls progress in curbing the increase of trafficking across the world. Following this critique, “You Are More” looks to two women, Carmen and Maria, who have been trafficked, one through labor trafficking and the other through sex trafficking, to see their take on popular representations.
[Show full text]
Freedom, Commerce, Bodies, Harm: the Case of Backpage.Com
Social Inclusion (ISSN: 2183–2803) 2017, Volume 5, Issue 2, Pages 3–15 DOI: 10.17645/si.v5i2.925 Article Freedom, Commerce, Bodies, Harm: The Case of Backpage.com Elizabeth Swanson Arts and Humanities Division, Babson College, MA 02457 Wellesley, USA; E-Mail: [email protected] Submitted: 23 February 2017 | Accepted: 4 May 2017 | Published: 23 June 2017 Abstract This article situates lawsuits against Backpage.com in the context of changing laws and norms of sexual commerce and trafficking, and of evolving legal interpretations of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 has been used repeatedly to shield internet service providers such as Backpage.com from liability for content generated by third parties that has led to criminal harm to others; in this case, the trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of minors. Moving to a critique of the law as at times grievously detached from the realities it addresses, I compare the legal strategies and decisions in three prominent cases brought against Backpage.com in St. Louis, Tacoma, and Boston, respectively. This critique identifies the evacuation of gendered bodies and the harm done to them from the court opinions as an example of what Robert Cover has called the “interpretive violence” of the law, and of the judges who interpret and dispense it. I conclude by calling for courts and Congress to act together to disrupt the accumulation of interpretive precedent favoring freedom of commerce and speech over the protection of bodies from harm. Keywords Backpage.com; Communications Decency Act; human trafficking; legal theory; minors; sex trafficking; sexual commerce Issue This article is part of the issue “Perspectives on Human Trafficking and Modern Forms of Slavery”, edited by Siddharth Kara (Harvard Kennedy School, USA).
[Show full text]