Sands of Silence

Sands of Silence: Waves of Courage is a personal documentary about a filmmaker who, inspired by the transformation of the sex-trafficking survivors whose lives she is documenting, finds the courage to break the silence about sexual abuse in her own life.

The screening will be followed by discussion with director Chelo Alvarez-Stehle and two survivors of trafficking, Virginia Isaias and Lala Isaias. The event runs from 7 to 10 p.m.

"Through the searing stories Chelo Alvarez-Stehle tells in her film, she demonstrates that sexual abuse and sexual trafficking are but points on a continuum. In so doing, she has made an important contribution to the national conversation about sexual assault and rape culture. This film is part of the new movement of independent documentary films that reveal important truths about the terrible secrets we keep as a society and the toll they take on all of us." — Jack Lerner, UC Irvine law professor, director of the UCI Intellectual Property, Arts and Technology Clinic, member of the Board of Directors of the International Documentary Association

www.sandsofsilence.org/trailer/