Morning Wire - Sound of Freedom | 7.3.23

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

Child trafficking is a real problem most people just don’t want to hear about. Now Angel Studios brings us the Sound of Freedom film, which tells the true story of federal agent Tim Ballard who rescues a young boy from child traffickers in Colombia. We speak to a star and producer of the film about the hurdles to making the film and why it is so important. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It is the fastest growing international crime network that the world has ever seen. It has already passed the O'Leyal Arms Trade, and soon it's going to pass the truck trade. Because you can sell a bag of cocaine one time. The child, five to ten times a day. God's children are not for sale. That was from the trailer for Sound of Freedom, which will premiere in theaters tomorrow, July 4th. The feature-length film has been eight years in the making and tells the her, growing true story of special agent Tim Ballard's lifelong mission to end child trafficking.

In this episode, we talked with Eduardo Berestegwe, who both produced and starred in the film. I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howl. It's Monday, July 3rd, and this is a special edition of Morning Wire. Joining us now is Eduardo Barrestegwi, one of Sound of Freedom's producers, who plays a key role in the film. Edward, thank you so much for joining us. First, you've had a massively successful career as an actor in Mexico. For the sake of our American audience, would you give us a little background on what you've done leading up to your role

in producing and starring in Sound of Freedom? Well, I started my career when I was 18, almost 19 years old. I'm from a very small town, Northern Mexico, called Hico Tenkalt, Tamalipas. This is northern Mexico, below Texas. My parents, they wanted me to be a lawyer, so I went to law school, but I was not passionate about being a lawyer.

So when I was 18, I left college after two semesters. Then I moved to Mexico City to pursue my dream. I wanted to be an actor. I wanted to be a singer. So I started singing in a boy band for three and a half years. We became very successful touring all over Mexico and Latin America. After three and a half years singing with that boy band, I left the music because I wanted to start a acting career.

And at that time, if you want to make a living as an actor, you didn't have so many options. You either do soap operas or soap operas. And that's what I did for almost three and a half years too. After that, I moved to Miami to record my first solo album in Spanish. And one day I was flying from Miami to Los Angeles with my manager. And I met someone who was sitting next to my manager on the plane. And he happens to be the VP for casting directors in 20th Century Fox.

Make a long story short, he invites me to do an audition for a film he was working i did the audition i got the part it's a movie called chasing puppy and after that movie you know it was 10 years of working really hard music soap operas and music again and now my american dream you know coming to america and finally you know that big dream that i had when i was very young one day moving to hollywood and making my first american film in english English, it was a big dream. And now I was doing it with agents and managers and publicists and lawyers and 20 people working with me. It was the American dream. But then, in one hand, I thought I had everything, but in the other hand, I had nothing. I was very empty. Something was missing

in my life. And I was not happy, and I was very confused because I didn't know what was missing. And meeting my English teacher, Jasmine, she not only taught me English. She not only helped me with my auditions and with my accent. But she went deeper than that. She started using the Socratic method asking me questions like, Eduardo, what is the purpose of your life? What do you want to gain in your life and why? How are you using your talents? And when you wake up in the morning, what motivates you? Who do you die for? Who do you live for? Are you part of the problem or are you part of the solution? Do you realize that very few times you see Latinos having an opportunity of being heroes, but not like Superman or Spider-Man, but the everyday

hero, the man who comes to this country to work really hard, men of integrity, virtuous men, and women, Latin women as well, reduce as object, sex symbols. You know, who are you, Eduardo? Who is your family? And I was answering, like, you know, well, my family is everything to me. I have three younger sisters, and they're the, you know, the best part of the family are my sisters and my mother, and, you know, they are the heart of the family. They're full of wisdom.

They're beautiful. They're smart. Okay, so let me ask you one more time. you know, media influence how people think, are you part of the problem or part of the solution? And that's when I realized that I was part of the problem. So I made a promise to God and to my parents that I will never work again in anything

that will offend my faith, my family, or my Latino culture. And after I made a promise, brother, I end up not working for four years, and I lost everything. Everything. But, you know, I gained everything that really matters in life. But I was tired of waiting for a role that will portray a man as a real man

as a real man until someone advised me, Eduardo, you're going to be waiting forever. Why don't you become a producer so you can have the power to control the message? And that's how with Alejandro Monteverde and Leo Severino, the three of us, we started this production company with one gold. Let's make movies that matters.

Movies that when people see them in theaters, they will leave the theater, not only entertained, but hopefully they will leave wanting to love more, wanting to forgive more, wanting to complain less, wanting to become the best version of themselves, because art has that power to change people's lives for good or for bad. And the first fruit of that mission was a little film that has changed the life of so many people, including my own life, this little film that ended up winning the Toronto Film Festival in 2006.

It's a little movie that changed my life too. It's called Bella. And that's the first movie that I produced in my life. And after that, we did Little Boy. And after that, eight years ago, I met Tim Ballard, an American hero. Yeah, so tell us about this. This film you've made is powerful and inspiring. It offers hope and direction. But it's obviously a very difficult topic.

Why did you choose to take on this particular project? Well, Amon was looking for projects, but somehow this project found us. We were in Los Angeles, California, and when we met Tim Ballard, a true American hero, and I met him and his friends, ex-FBI. agents, CIA agents, ex-Nabby SEALs, and these guys, they travel around the world undercover, rescuing children that are kidnapped for sexual respiration. And when they explain to us with details what these children are going through, the pain that they're going through, the suffering, I was very inspired by meeting heroes like them, but I was depressed. I couldn't sleep for days.

It was like a nightmare. And I couldn't look the other way around. I couldn't remind silence. and Alejandro and I we said, well, we have a weapon of mass instruction and inspiration, film, movies, movies can move people. We can make a movie. Because I asked Tim Ballard, okay, so this is a

global problem, right? And he said, yes, especially U.S. and Mexico. U.S. is the number one consumer of child sex in the world. Mexico is the number one provider. So, I ask him, how come if the United States is the most powerful country in the world, you have the intelligence,

You have the army, the police, you have the technology. You have everything. How can we don't finish this problem? And he said to me, because it's not a priority. And we are not the solution, Eduardo. I can be the solution for one child. And of course, if I save one child, you save the world. Thank God we have been able to save and to rescue many children, thousands of children.

But this is beyond us. It's too big. We're talking about millions of children that are kidnapped for sexual exploitation. These kids are being raped 10 to 15 times a day for many. years. So we need a movement. And I believe that this movie can start this movement where we can raise awareness, which is the number one and most important step, it's to raise awareness. Because if people doesn't know that this problem exists, they cannot be part of the solution in the first place. So we need to tell people, this is real. This is happening here next door everywhere, schools,

everywhere. And if we put enough pressure from the media, from our society, to the government, can turn this into priority and then, and only then, I have no doubt that by working together, we can end this terrible reality. And that's when I decided to stop everything that I was doing in my life at that time so I can dedicate my life to end child trafficking. I made a promise to God that I will dedicate everything to join this army of brave people that are not afraid to raise their voices to defend those who doesn't have a voice, who defend those who can defend themselves. That's my motivation, you know. Let's protect everything. child. God's children are not for sale. Amen. Now this is a film that took several years to get to

audience with a lot of roadblocks. Can you tell us about some of those challenges? What made making this film so difficult? Well, everything was difficult from day one. When I share with my friends and some investors, you know, okay, this is next. Right there, why this one? This is too dangerous. This is too dangerous. And I say, yes, it's very dangerous, but it's more dangerous not to do it in the long term. And what if this is your son? What if this is your daughter? And I dream that one day, we don't have to rescue any more children because this thing is over. It doesn't exist anymore. But we need to start now. What do you mean it's too dangerous, man? Come on. We need to do this. But right there, it was rejection from people that I went to knock, you know, their doors to ask them

for support. And now, you know, we don't want to get involved in this. So right there, it was obstacles. But thank God, we knock the doors of the right people. who they say yes, even though it was months of many nos, no, no, we're not going to support this. Finally, someone say yes, because you cannot give up when you are working in a project that it's designed to save lives. This is a calling. This is a mission. This is so profound. So finally, we raise the funds. We make the movie. We went to Colombia because this is a true story. When I asked Tim Ballard, you know, it's very hard to make a movie about you because you need 100, episodes, you know, but this is a two-hour film. So tell me what's the most difficult rescue mission you ever done in your life. And he told Alejandro and me, Cartagena, Colombia, the first

one. It was very dangerous. It was very difficult, but it was very successful because at the end, the kids are crying with tears in their eyes, singing, celebrating their freedom. It was like this beautiful sound of freedom. And that's when we look at each other, Alejandro and I, okay, that's the movie and that's the title. So after we finished the movie, it was five years of work, then every studio passed. We went to Netflix, we went to Amazon, and I don't know why until today. They say, this is not for us. This is not a good business for us. This is not about business. It's about saving lives, saving children. This is the greatest evil. I mean, there's nothing more evil than these. What do you mean, this is not for us? The kids cannot wait any longer. I need to do

something. So I started doing this tour in Mexico, where I asked each governor from each state to host a private screening for leaders of that state. And then after the film, and we invite the media to and the press and everything, leaders of that state. And then we sign an agreement of a commitment to end child trafficking in that state. And that's how I survived with this movie. It was two years of touring all over Mexico until finally I was praying for an angel to come to rescue this movie.

And guess what? Angel Studios came and rescued this film. And because of them, now millions of people will see this film. now that is going to be opening in July 4th. But what a symbolic day? Because it's Independence Day, right? We're celebrating freedom. And yes, we should with one hand,

but with another hand, we should bring freedom back to those children that are not free right now. Well, Eduardo, thank you so much for joining us and for all the work you've done, raising awareness for this extremely important issue. And best of luck for the success of this film. God bless you, brother. Thank you.

That was Sound of Freedom producer and star, Eduardo Barrostegu, and this has been a special edition of Morningwire.