Counterfeit
A woman is given only five minutes to convince a young girl to testify against her trafficker.
Addison Ross Cendejas is an award-winning writer and director based out of Waco, TX. She began her journey as an actor and live theatre director before bringing her love of storytelling to the screen. She received a degree in Film and Digital Media from Baylor University and worked as a development assistant in LA for Yoruba Saxon Production Company before returning to Waco to make her most recent film. Addison is passionate about telling human stories that challenge and move her audience while pushing for hope and redemption in brokenness.
The issue of human trafficking has been one that has held an immense grip on my heart since I was a young girl. The fact that we are able to live so comfortably while nearly thirty-million girls and boys are trafficked around the world is a reality I cannot easily live with. Telling a story that touched on this issue was something I wanted to do for a long time, but it wasn’t until I started reading about the life of a trafficking survivor who walked closely with girls in “the life” that this story began to take shape. I learned about the horrible injustices she witnessed, not only by traffickers but by a corrupt government system as well. I learned that minorities and children from low income housing were the greatest targets for this wicked industry. When I was given the chance to make a film for my advanced production class, I knew this was the film I needed to make. After writing the script, I was able to speak with a survivor and share the story I was trying to tell. “The situation you wrote about happens every single day,” she said. I knew then that I had to get this story out into the world. This is for the victims whose voices are silenced every day in our nation and around the world.