A poignant & unapologetic film
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PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kelly Galindo
26secondsdoc@gmail.com
A POIGNANT AND UNAPOLOGETIC DOCUMENTARY ON GLOBAL SEX TRAFFICKING
Kelly Galindo, award-winning writer, director, and producer of 26 Seconds, has won the prestigious Award of Merit Best Shorts Competition of Women Filmmakers; The Award of Merit Special Mention from the Impact Doc Awards; and the Award of Merit for Best Documentary Short and Women Filmmakers for the IndieFEST Film Awards. 26 Seconds has also earned Best Short Film Cause-for-Change for AIFA Fest and has received a Special Mention for the One-Reeler Short Film Competition. In addition, 26 Seconds has been officially selected for the Docs Without Borders Film Festival, Accolade Global Film Competition, and See It-End It Film and Arts Festival. These awards were given for Galindo’s exceptional documentary short 26 Seconds. Her vision is to spread awareness and create a call to action by educating audiences by giving a voice to those who have been silenced. Human trafficking is the fastest-growing illegal industry in the world. There are more slaves today than any time in history.
ONE CHILD EVERY 26 SECONDS IS TRAFFICKED GLOBALLY
In winning the Best Shorts, Impact Docs, and IndieFEST awards 26 Seconds joins the ranks of other high-profile winners of these internationally respected awards. Best Shorts winners have included Disney Interactive for “Vinylmation: A Love Story” and Oscar-winning production “Mr. Hublot” from Laurent Witz from Luxembourg. Winners of the Impact DOCS award include many Oscar-winning directors including Louie Psihiyos for his 2016 Best of Show--Racing Extinction, Oscar-winner Yael Melamede for (Dis)Honesty--The Truth About Lies, and Emmy-award winner Gerald Rafshoon for Endless, Corridors, narrated by Oscar winner Jeremy Irons. The IndieFEST Winners have included internationally respected Liam Neeson as the narrator of Love Thy Nature, A Path Appears Documentary featuring George Clooney and Blake Lively, Radical Grace executive produced by Susan Sarandon, a searing expose Davids and Goliath by Peabody winner Leon Lee, and Touched with Fire starring Katie Holmes.
Entries are received from around the world from powerhouse companies to remarkable new talent, who demonstrate exceptional achievement in craft and creativity. And those who produce standout entertainment or contribute to profound social change and help set the standard as power catalysts for global change.
26 Seconds is a two-stage film project that reveals the global epidemic of child sex trafficking. The first stage is a two-hour feature documentary that is currently in post-production. The second stage is a dramatic documentary miniseries. Through a captivating journey across the world, Galindo reveals the ubiquity of the problem and the gravity of the damage sustained by this evil, destructive trade. In intimate interviews, the audience gets a raw, often shocking glimpse into the lives of children and women in various cultures and regions. The interviews include vivid details of how each victim was captured or lured into the sex trade, the horrors of their captivity, and the commitment of each individual, non-profit organization, crisis intervention team, and law enforcement in the fight to eradicate global sex trafficking. The film project exposes the underage sex slave industry from the United States to Asia and Africa. The 26 Seconds team is currently editing the feature documentary with three-time Emmy award winner, Mark Wilcken, as lead editor. The production will be making a strong push for top-tier film festivals, along with a PR campaign for the Academy Awards. Sid Ganis, the supervising producer for 26 Seconds, was the past president of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts, and Sciences; he also served as chairman of the Academy’s International Outreach Committee up to 2017. Prior to this, Ganis has been on the board of directors at Marvel Entertainment until its sale to Disney. His film career in marketing and publicity includes working at 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm, Columbia Pictures, Warner Brothers, and Paramount Pictures.
“Film is my commitment to creating work that matters in our world,” Galindo said. “I wanted to film a documentary on global sex trafficking because it is a fast-growing horrific industry that tragically affects every child and woman worldwide. We can either do something or nothing. I simply chose to do something with the resources and creative talent that I possess and have access to as a professor in film. As a filmmaker, my intention is to tell the story. It was not possible to tell the story about human trafficking unless I visited the countries, met the victims face-to-face that were trapped in the sex trade – the pimps and madams that sell them, and the johns who buy them – but the true heroes are the non-profit organizations that rescue, restore, and reintegrate these innocent children. Creating awareness is not enough, but rather a call to action is ALL of our responsibility. It will not only take an army of heroes but also a village of ordinary people.”
For more information, you can visit 26seconddoc.com or IMDB. You can also follow 26 Seconds on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. 26 Seconds has also been featured in the L.A. Times, Epoch Times, and Chapman Newsroom.
The 26 Seconds short is currently available on Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, and Google Play.
