THERE ARE OVER 800,000 WOMEN WORKING IN PROSTITUTION IN THE PHILIPPINES, HALF OF THEM UNDER AGE. WE NEED TO SHARE THEIR STORY TO HELP SET THEM FREE!

Sept 2011: IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR OUR RECENT FUNDRAISING PAGE, go to http://streetdreams2.pozible.com.au. THANKS!!

11 April 2011: THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS CONTRIBUTED! It is fantastic that we've been able to reach this goal. This target was always considered the bare minimum that we needed to be able to progress with this project, so please CONTINUE TO DONATE as any further funds will simply enhance what we are able to achieve in production. THANKS!!

PLEASE SEE our Street Dreams blog for up-to-date info about the project!

THE AIM – Create a DVD resource that would tell the story about the world of South-East Asian human trafficking and flesh trade (particularly in the Philippines & Thailand) and those who are trying to rescue them.
 
WHY – To create awareness of the real life effects of human trafficking and poverty, and support F.O.C.U.S and other similar organisations who are desperately trying to make a difference.
 
THE STORY – Despite Asia’s well-documented prostitution and human trafficking issues, the voices of those caught up in it are still largely silent. We wish to explore the heartfelt, tragic yet hopeful stories of young girls in South East Asia, trapped in a cruel world where they are exploited, their childhoods stolen from them, but who still have dreams.

While Street Dreams aims to tackle the overwhelming injustice that is the flesh-trade industry, we are aiming to steer away from the depressing world that viewers typically see and struggle to relate to, and rather focus on a concept that is shared by everyone – childhood dreams. It is here where the audience will see how real human hope, love and determination stare in the face of despair every day, holding on to promises of a better life.
 
One of the underlying subtexts of this documentary will be the role of the western society in creating an environment where the multi-billion dollar global industry of human trafficking and flesh trade flourishes. During the film, the audience will realise these workers are metaphor for the western world’s ongoing exploitation of entire nations crippled by immense poverty and injustice. One character in the film will be social worker Marlene Alastra who knows the girls and their situations very well.
 
WHO – A Red Earth/Jason Bray co-production working in association with Manila based street mission F.O.C.U.S. and other similar greassroots and non-profit organisations

Jason Bray - Producer/Director - Jason Bray has spent the last 16 years as a Youth Worker in Queensland. In this time Jason has been developing his concern for marginalised people and their stories. As a filmmaker, Jason takes that concern and turns it into a motivation for making powerful documentaries and films. Street Dreams would be Jason’s third documentary.

Mike Crowhurst - Producer/Director of Photography - Over the past 20 years, Mike has honed business, design and filmmaking skills thru his own multimedia and video production companies, skills which have been essential to both the creative and business ends of film. As well as being a jack-of-all-trades as television news cameraman, video editing and design work, Mike's interests in writing and directing for film can be seen in a variety of short films and documentary.

RED EARTH FILMS is an emerging film and television production company consisting of Mike Crowhurst and Jason Bray. Established in 2005, Red Earth has worked on a number of acclaimed projects from short films, video clips, corporate videos and documentaries. Red Earth Films, through the Starfish Project, is committed to telling the stories of the marginalised, primarily through the medium of documentary.

MORE INFORMATION - Please see the Red Earth Films website website, our dedicated blog for the latest news and links, or download our Press Release for an easy document to pass the word around to anyone you may know.
 

FUNDING - The money raised for this project is to be used for principle photography and production of the film. We intend on doing more fundraising after this portion to complete the film by using the footage to entice our audience and broadcasters to help see it through. By filmmaking standards, this is extremly low-budget. Almost non-existent really. We have limited crew to very few essentials, paying just to cover food, a roof over our heads and travel costs, and are relying on our contacts, travel experience and our wits to help guide our way. As documentarians, we do this for the love of film and the subject matter we are exploring, not for money! If we can reach our target here, it will be a huge boost to our ability to continue to make these types of important films.

WHY DONATE TO A DOCUMENTARY

Why would a person put money into a documentary? What distinguishes a film like “Street Dreams” from every other charity or organization? Like every piece of art whether it be film, music or painting, a good documentary is making a statement. Our projects capture a slice of the real world, crafting it into a documentary and then sending it into the world as a statement. If you were too look at our previous works, Breathless and Ballots and Bullets, you should quite easily see what that statement is – compassion.

When an organisation or individual invests in a project like this, then they are assisting in getting a statement of compassion onto “the marketplace of ideas.”

Our documentaries are able to make a statement about compassion by promoting the shared humanity between the subject and the audience, allowing the audience to have identification and empathy for the subject. Our goal is to turn the marginalized “other” into a living and breathing human being that deserves respect and recognition. Once the audience makes this connection then the hope is that the connection will turn into action.

We want to stimulate our audience into acts of charity and justice for those in the world who are lacking both.

Many thanks for supporting our project!