Not My Life
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NML_Demo_2009-2.mov
Images
Enslaved fishing boys in Ghana, Africa.
The Crew conducting interviews in Ghana
Trafficked women 'at work' in Italy
One of the many victims of sexual trafficking - Italy
One of the many fighting trafficking - Italy
Modern-day slavery threatens entire families
Children are among the most at risk to be trafficked
A convicted trafficker imprisoned in Romania
Trafficking victim - Eastern Europe
Website
Topics
Health: Disease/treatment, HIV/AIDS
Human Development: Aid, Capacity Building, Children, Education, Food, International Cooperation, Labor, Land, Population, Poverty, Refugees, Shelter & Housing, Social Exclusion, Tourism, Urban, Water/Sanitation, Youth
Human Rights: Civil Rights, Gender, Sexuality, Social Exclusion
Information & Media: Culture
Peace and Conflict: Arms & Military, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Peace, Security, Terrorism, United Nations
Politics: Activism, Civil Society, Codes of Conduct, Corruption & Transparency, Democracy, Ethics & Value Systems, Geopolitics, Globalization, Governance, Justice and Crime, Law
Project Geography
US: National
International: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America
Identity Niches
African, African American, Asian, Asian American, Caucasian, Children, Indigenous, Latino, Women, Youth/Teen
Budget
Raised to date: $ 2,082,000.00
Estimate to complete: $ 500,000.00
Total Estimated Budget: $ 2,582,000.00
The budget numbers above are accurate as of 06/01/2009
Status
Production
Media Type
Other
Project End Use
Other: Film - used for theatrical, TV, and internet release, and grassroots/educational distribution
Key Personnel
Robert Bilheimer
President/Director/Writer
Robert Bilheimer, President of Worldwide Documentaries, Inc., is a director, writer, and producer with an international background in film, theatre, journalism, and creative writing, focusing on subjects of cultural, social, and humanitarian interest. As a filmmaker, his subjects range from the plays of Samuel Beckett to the vast complexity of the global AIDS epidemic, and its underlying causes. Among the many recognitions and awards for his work, Robert has received his profession's highest honor—an Academy Award nomination—for Cry of Reason, a feature-length documentary that tells the story of South African anti-apartheid leader Beyers Naude.
Robert is currently producing, writing, and directing the Worldwide Documentaries’ production, Not My Life, a feature-length documentary film that comprehensively depicts the global affliction of modern-day slavery and human trafficking. Not My Life follows the release, in 2003, of A Closer Walk, the acclaimed documentary about global AIDS that Robert also directed and produced.
Throughout his career, Robert’s films have attracted an international audience. They have been seen on television in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, South Africa and China. His films have also been shown in theaters in the United States and abroad; and exhibited at film festivals around the world including the Festival of Festivals in Toronto, the Chicago International Film Festival, the Tribeca Film Festival, the Durban International Film Festival, the XXXVth India International Film Festival, and the Montreal World Film Festival.
Robert was born in New York City and was educated at the International School in Geneva, Switzerland; Hamilton College (BA, Honors, English Literature); and Indiana University Graduate School (MA, Theatre and Film). He received the Army Commendation Medal for his work as Chaplain's Assistant in the US Army Special Services, 1968-1970. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music, served as a consultant for the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and was a Resident Scholar at the Anson Phelps-Stokes Institute for Black American and Native American Studies in New York City.
Early in his career, Robert worked as a freelance journalist. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, he was a stringer for Time magazine and filed regularly for the Nairobi Daily Nation, and Agence France Presse. Robert has also written theatre and opera criticism and as a college student won the American Academy of Poets Award for his trilogy of poems, "Going Into The Desert."
Robert’s experience in theater includes the direction of more than 30 professional regional productions in the US and Canada, including four seasons at The Rochester (NY) Shakespeare Theatre where Robert was Founder and Artistic Director, and a landmark interracial production of Brecht's "Mother Courage" at the Kenya National Theatre. At the Manitoba Theatre Centre, he was Tony Award winner Len Cariou's Associate Artistic Director, and was named Director of the Year by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for his direction of Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" and Arthur Miller's "The Price”.
Richard Young
Director of Photography
Oscar® nominee Richard Young is one of North America’s most distinguished documentary cinematographers. He has filmed dozens of documentaries for the Eastman Kodak Company, and for his work on two feature-length documentaries for PBS was awarded two Emmys®. With international experience that has taken him to more than a dozen countries over a span of more than 25 years in filmmaking, Not My Life is Richard’s fourth collaboration with Robert Bilheimer and Worldwide Documentaries.
Heidi Ostertag
Senior Producer
Heidi’s career with Worldwide Documentaries began at its inception in 1985. After a number of years working as a production manager for an independent film company, Worldwide President Robert Bilheimer approached Heidi about joining Worldwide Documentaries, Inc. The idea was to assemble a small group of dedicated professionals whose goal would be to make films that would change the way people think about human rights, social justice, and what it means to be a human being. Thus the journey began and now, twenty-three years later, Heidi is Worldwide Documentaries’ Senior Producer, with a wide range of responsibilities including production planning and supervision; day-to-day management of the company’s global operations; and supervision of a small cadre of staff and volunteers. Heidi feels that one of the most deeply rewarding aspects of working at Worldwide has been the multitude of courageous and inspiring individuals she has had the privilege to meet over the years. “Many have remained dear friends, and all have left an indelible mark on my heart.”
Outreach/Engagement Plan(s)
Worldwide Documentaries will undertake a global distribution campaign for Not My Life modeled on the remarkable success of A Closer Walk, Worldwide’s film about the global AIDS epidemic, which has become an icon in the international AIDS community and has been seen by more than 300 million people around the world.
The premise of the distribution campaign for Not My Life is as follows: people from any and all walks of life are ready to respond, in extraordinary ways, to difficult subjects like modern-day slavery if given the opportunity. It is not receptivity at the viewer end that is lacking but, rather, the all too rare combination of a carefully crafted film that is aggressively and thoughtfully distributed in a variety of ways to reach the maximum number of people. The operative belief here, quite simply, is that deep down most humans are the same: they do not wish to see others die needlessly; they wish to know when others suffer; they are capable of acts of kindness and compassion; and they intuitively understand what the Dalai Lama means when he speaks about “being part of humanity.” But they cannot act on-- or be blamed for-- something they know nothing about. With respect to modern-day slavery, the ignorance is pervasive and real. The burden at this point is on the conveyors of knowledge and truth, not the receivers of it.
Ultimately, as with A Closer Walk, Worldwide will engage with hundreds of partners around the world in government, the private sector, and civil society to ensure that Not My Life will reach the largest possible audience, and in so doing effectively change the way the world thinks and acts with respect to the tragedy of slavery in our time.
Already, brainstorming and planning for this campaign is underway with a core group of individuals and institutions, and will continue throughout the remainder of the production period. These include: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; the U.S. State Department’s Office to Combat and Monitor Trafficking in Persons; Thelonius Monk Institute; International Justice Mission; Polaris; UNICEF Innocenti Center; International Organization for Migration; and the International Labor Organization.
Key components of Not My Life’s global campaign are being developed with this group and others are as follows:
-- Broadcast Television
Interest in Not My Life among potential broadcasters includes ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, HBO, Showtime, and Discovery in the United States; and global networks including CBC, CCTV, RNC, Doordarshan, STAR, and SABC.
--Free Film Program to NGOs Globally
Through this program hundreds of NGOs around the world will be de facto grassroots distribution agents for Not My Life, as well as on-the-ground evaluators of the film’s influence and success over time. This program includes multiple versions and lengths of Not My Life in multiple languages for region, culture, or subject specific purposes and applications.
-- Education Program
Distribution to high schools and colleges in the United States and then globally through partnership with advocacy organizations including The ONE Campaign.
-- Global, Regional, and National Premieres, Festivals, Awards, and Publicity
A year-long campaign to introduce and publicize Not My Life on a global stage beginning with a world premiere in New York City in the Fall of 2009. Subsequent European, Asian, African, and Latin American premieres, followed by television broadcasts and theatrical release in specific international markets. First festival appearance: Sundance or Cannes in 2010.
Funders
| Name | Amount | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marcia Brady Tucker Foundation | $ 20,000.00 | 05/01/2009 | |
| James R. Greenbaum Foundation | $ 500,000.00 | 02/15/2009 | |
| Austrian Government | $ 71,500.00 | 01/31/2009 | |
| United States Agency for International Development (USAID) | $ 190,500.00 | 01/15/2008 | |
| Swedish International Development Agency | $ 250,000.00 | 11/15/2007 | |
| United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) | $ 500,000.00 | 10/01/2007 | |
| DeVos Family Foundation | $ 100,000.00 | 10/01/2007 | |
| Austrian Development Agency | $ 45,000.00 | 04/01/2007 | |
| United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) | $ 10,000.00 | 02/01/2007 |
Location(s)
7706 Baptist Hill Road
Bloomfield, 14469
See Google Maps
Short Synopsis
Not My Life is a feature-length documentary film about the horrifying practices of modern-day slavery and global human trafficking, which affect millions of children, women, and men in virtually every country on earth.
Description/Treatment
The premise of Not My Life is that slavery and human trafficking in the 21st century are profoundly destabilizing phenomena that breed in poverty, threaten global security and peace, and are among the planet’s most widespread and egregious violations of fundamental human rights. Because slavery and human trafficking are criminal enterprises, and governments around the world have not acted vigorously against them, there is a fundamental lack of knowledge among the general public as to how dangerous and undermining these practices really are.
Albeit that to some degree specific aspects of this emerging issue --especially female sexual trafficking-- are being addressed in books, news stories, television reports, and fiction and non-fiction films, to date there is no single communications tool that effectively depicts the problem as a whole for a mass audience. Not My Life is that tool. Until it is completed and widely used, however, the global public will remain uninformed, and therefore indifferent, to what is in fact happening to millions of their fellow human beings in the world today. This state of indifference can be changed by Not My Life. And as a result of that change, lives can be saved, values restored, and governments made more accountable for the unspeakable crimes that are presently being committed within their borders, regions, and hemispheres.
Although accurate numbers are impossible to come by at this stage of the international community’s encounter with the realities of modern-day slavery, there is no question that the internal and transnational trafficking of human beings affects millions of individuals in virtually every country in the world. Probably the most reliable current estimate in terms of individuals of any gender or age in conditions of slavery is the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) figure of about 12 million, although one of the world’s leading NGOs on the subject, Free The Slaves, puts the number at over 25 million, approximately the same number of people who have died of AIDS over the past 30 years.
But whatever the numbers, one need only travel to any of the world’s continents and locations where Not My Life is being filmed to realize that modern-day slavery is everywhere:
— The northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where entire families and villages, representing millions of people, have been living in indentured servitude for three generations.
— The giant soybean plantations of the Amazon in Brazil, where men and boys have been enslaved laborers for years in sub-human conditions.
— The child brothels in Cambodia, where 8 year-old girls are raped and sewn up as many as half a dozen times in a matter of weeks so they bleed when penetrated, thus satisfying sex tourists seeking the “safety” of virgins.
— The prison on the outskirts of Bucharest, where a 21 year-old boy, serving a 10-year prison sentence for international trafficking crimes, nonchalantly describes hanging girls from the ceiling and beating them with an iron bar to make them “behave.”
— The fisheries of west and central Africa, where boys from the age of 6 work at jobs even grown men find arduous and fraught with danger.
— The truckstops on Interstate 40 in Oklahoma and Texas, where 12 and 13 year-old girls from troubled or vulnerable backgrounds, lured by traffickers into prostitution, haul their frail, adolescent bodies in and out of the giant 18-wheel rigs on “Party Row,” pathetic symbols of the ubiquity of trafficking crimes in this day and age.
-- The jungles of Colombia, where thousands of children have been recruited as child soldiers in an internal conflict that has been going on for years.
There are millions of stories and scenarios like these, each as horrific as the other. The thought of actually living in a world where such affronts to human rights and dignity are taking place on such a massive scale is profoundly unsettling. How have we come to such a point? What, if anything, does the term “modern civilization” mean in a world where such horrors abound and at a time where we have the resources to make the world a much better place than it actually is?
Although Not My Life is not intended simply as a travelogue or catalogue of these crimes against humanity, an important point the film will make is that the modern-day enslavement of human beings is indeed extraordinarily diverse, and encompasses a gruesome array of practices under the broad headings of sex slavery and various forms of slave labor, including soldiering, begging, scavenging, working in factories and fields, weaving, and domestic servitude.
While painfully evident in concrete terms-- the suffering of trafficking victims is immense—the most dangerous dilemma posed by slavery in our time is ultimately the moral one. Lincoln’s statement, “if slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong”, makes it clear that if we tolerate the cruel and inhuman enslavement of millions of people for sexual, economic, or political purposes, then we live, by his definition at least, in an amoral world: “nothing is wrong”. Such a world can never be a world at peace in any meaningful or useful sense of the term, because peace is a moral state, not an immoral or amoral one. By solving slavery and human trafficking in the 21st century, we will of course not solve all the world’s other problems at the same time. Poverty will still be with us; conflict will still be with us; environmental issues will still be with us; evil, cruelty, and crime will still be with us-- all challenging us to be more than who we are, that is, more human. But if we do not solve slavery and trafficking in our time, we will add to our already heavy burden in a truly alarming and dangerous way, because our humanity itself will slowly disappear. Having lost sight of what it truly means to be a human being, we will enter a kind of heart of darkness, where no one is right, no one is wrong, things fall apart, and, as Yeats wrote, “mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”
Not My Life is being filmed in North and South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, India, and Africa. Preproduction began in January 2006 and production has been underway since early 2007. Not My Life is scheduled to premiere in early 2010.