The people behind the new film, Sound of Freedom, join us to talk about the film and why it s so important to the story of the film. We also hear from Eduardo Vrastegui, who spent 12 years undercover for the U.S. government as a child sex trafficker, and Tim Ballard, who served as a special agent on the border.
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00:02:38.000Smash the like button, subscribe to this channel, share this show with your friends, because today, we are being joined by Tim Ballard and Eduardo Vrastegui.
00:03:34.000agents for the first time to go overseas and we could, if we found Americans engaging in sex with kids, we could hold them accountable as if they'd committed that sex crime in the U.S.
00:03:44.000So that kind of opened up like international operations and about that time I went to undercover school and they sent me in.
00:03:50.000I'd play the role of a pedophile, a purveyor of child sex, trafficker, whatever.
00:05:05.000I promised the father I would never stop!
00:05:08.000At the same time, I'm down in Colombia, and this is the part you see in Sound of Freedom, consulting, and I was given permission, if you listen to the film it's accurate, I was given permission to consult.
00:05:52.000But in the movie, Mira Cervino, who plays my wife, Academy Award winning, amazing actress, and it's one of my favorite lines in the film because it's so powerful.
00:06:12.000Okay, Eduardo and the team didn't want me to show the true cowardice that I actually manifested at this time in late 2013 because it was my idea.
00:06:22.000I said, well, Catherine, if I come home, you know, it's over.
00:08:01.000We were already talking before the show and there's going to be more spoilers.
00:08:05.000So, um, Somewhat conveniently, we'll talk a little bit about what's going on with Europe, which will give us a little buffer zone so I can warn everybody and say, there's going to be spoilers.
00:08:14.000We're not going to go crazy with it, but I think we definitely need to talk about some of the elements of the film, because it was so good.
00:08:20.000Stories like that, the feeling that I got watching this was, I could not believe it.
00:09:58.000And that same conversation, for whatever reason, that was when I broke down the first time in that movie when she said, do it, like, go, go, you know?
00:10:31.000military reserve units to deploy to active duty in Europe in Operation Atlantic Resolve.
00:10:37.000Atlantic Resolve is the official name of the unofficial operation supporting the war in Ukraine.
00:10:42.000That is to say, reserve military... Actually, let me just pull up the executive order we have right here from the WhiteHouse.gov.
00:10:48.000Selected reserve and the individual ready reserve of the armed forces are being called to active duty to be deployed into Europe.
00:10:59.000The official WhiteHouse.gov statement is by the authority vested in me as President, etc, etc, and he lists everything I hereby determine is necessary to augment the active armed force of the U.S.
00:11:07.000for the effective conduct of Operation Atlantic Resolve in and around the United States European Command's area of responsibility.
00:11:34.000Yeah, I'm certainly frightened by the news.
00:11:36.000I'm probably not the person here who has the most expertise on military and foreign policy, but I think there's real reason to be concerned.
00:11:44.000Let's pray for this country and hope that we don't get dragged into a third world war, that this doesn't escalate into something that it doesn't need to be.
00:11:50.000It's like, I believe that there is God.
00:11:54.000structure, something that's happening that's vibrating and causing things to form like they're happening like climatic cymatics, you see where sound can cause matter to change shape.
00:12:03.000And that maybe we're here to talk about this movie because this war stuff is out of our hands.
00:14:30.000I mean, that's crazy, man, how, you know, volunteers from all over the world going to Haiti to, you know, find children that they love their parents because in one night, thousands of children lost their parents, right?
00:14:43.000These traffickers just write, they just write orphanage on the wall.
00:14:46.000This is, whether you think literally or figuratively, demonic.
00:14:58.000And here you are telling the story where your wife and Mel Gibson both call you and say, go save these kids.
00:15:04.000You know, part of me is like, I'm thinking there's a lot of people who wish they would have some kind of the purpose being laid right before them.
00:17:09.000If, you know, I don't know, maybe it's inappropriate to say, but if ever there was someone with some kind of divine purpose, the story that you've told already, I'm like, man, how many people just wish they knew they had that mission, whether they were fearful of it or not.
00:17:25.000Like I said, it's probably scary, but you tell these stories and so much of it sounds unreal.
00:17:33.000The line from your wife, the story from the... We'll get into the film story in a minute, but... Man, it really does feel like you have a purpose here that you are fulfilling.
00:17:47.000Yeah, I mean, you're a humble man, and you're saying these things about the fact that you were afraid, and your wife encouraged you, and surely she did, but there are many men whose wives would say, save those children, who'd go, we're not talking about this, honey.
00:19:03.000If you take a great story and you do it wrong, the story doesn't make it.
00:19:07.000You make a great film, you hit it out of the park, now that story, that mission, makes it somewhere.
00:19:12.000I think people often underestimate the importance of filmmaking and making sure people feel that emotion in that story.
00:19:18.000You know, I think for me as a producer, the number one thing that you need to have is the story.
00:19:24.000The story is like the soul of the movie.
00:19:28.000Without a good story, you have nothing, right?
00:19:31.000So when I met Tim Ballard eight years ago in Los Angeles, California, I was with Alejandro Monteverde, my business partner.
00:19:37.000He's the director of the film and he's the writer of the film as well, along with Rod.
00:19:42.000And when we met him and he told us what he does around the world, him and his friends, his team, they travel around the world undercover rescuing children that are kidnapped for sexual exploitation.
00:19:55.000Kids that are being abused 10 to 15 times a day for many years.
00:19:59.000And then after that, sometimes they don't want them anymore because they're not fresh meat anymore.
00:20:07.000That's the vocabulary that they use, right?
00:20:09.000So, they go to this second business, which is organs traffic.
00:20:12.000They open them and they sell their organs.
00:20:14.000So, when you heard things like this, man, you cannot look the other way around anymore.
00:21:54.000That's the title and that's the story.
00:21:56.000Then Alejandro, right after he started writing the script for three years, three years of Alejandro's life, and you know what happened to him?
00:22:02.000Right before he started writing the script, man, his father and his older brother got kidnapped in Mexico and they killed him.
00:22:12.000Alejandro Monteverde wrote Sound of Freedom with so much pain, man.
00:22:17.000He put his soul, his blood, his suffering in that movie.
00:22:21.000And I know when people see this movie, Sound of Freedom, they feel the pain of the kids.
00:22:27.000They feel the sacrifice of Tim Ballard.
00:22:29.000They feel the pain of the writer, Alejandro Monteverde.
00:22:32.000And we are honoring his father and his son with this film, too, as well, who are in heaven, along with my father who passed away last year.
00:22:40.000I want to jump to this right here from Box Office Mojo.
00:22:43.000Sound of Freedom, though it's been attacked relentlessly by many in the media, it has cracked $50 million with a current domestic box office of $53,922,551, a massive success.
00:22:57.000Through word of mouth, more and more people are starting to see this film.
00:23:00.000It looks like the amount of gross revenue being generated is increasing, whereas most films have their big Blockbuster Weekend, it goes down, this is the inverse.
00:23:09.000I think this film really is potentially starting a movement.
00:23:13.000More and more people are getting active, focusing on the issue, more people care about the issue.
00:23:18.000There are creepy people in the media that are smearing it as QAnon and other weird things, but get this.
00:23:25.000Even with that, on Rotten Tomatoes, the Tomato Meter, which is the official corporate press reviewers, give it a 75%.
00:24:47.000You tell the child your name, and the kid looks up at you, and he says, Timoteo, he has a necklace that was given to him by his sister, with Saint Timothy, I believe is the, what was it, First Timothy?
00:25:10.000And your name's Tim too, I know, but like, I'm watching this movie, this kid is being rescued from this evil, evil man and this organization.
00:25:18.000You say, this is my name, and then he pauses, and it seems to be some kind of, like, divine intervention when he says, look what I have, as if you were sent specifically to save him.
00:25:28.000I was on the verge of tears when I saw that happen.
00:25:31.000I said, I'm like, yeah, but I wish that really happened.
00:26:24.000He just starts grabbing me and he says to me, and I think This was the kind of transformational moment for me, because I didn't know if I was going to stay in this work, especially after this.
00:26:39.000This was the first kid I ever saw, by the way, who was in a video.
00:26:43.000Before that time, I'd only done videos, like end-user, you know, possession cases of child exploitation material.
00:26:50.000This was the first time when I saw this kid, I knew him.
00:27:32.000and and up until that point we've just been kind of friendly we got close he started trusting me and it was like just like this like something just turned on in him and he just ran over to me and jumped into my arms like almost like again it was like An angel said go or something like he was he didn't ease into it we're just coloring and then boom he gets up and runs to me and he jumps into my arms and he starts shaking crying and I'm crying like I just lose it you know I've got kids his age you know you start picturing your own kids you superimpose your kids faces in the moment right um and he says these words to me
00:28:08.000And it's just, I knew at that time that the stats were millions of kids.
00:29:03.000And I fall down, and the dichotomy of the whole, I walk into my house, my kids are happy, and they're playing, and they're 10 minutes away from this kid who has spent the first five years of his life being sexually assaulted and videotaped.
00:29:18.000And my kids are happy, and they're only 10 minutes away, and I couldn't deal with it.
00:29:21.000It was like the underbelly of my own town, and that's everybody's town.
00:29:27.000Remember, this is the first kid that I've seen, and I collapsed on the floor, and Catherine thought I was having a heart attack, because I'd never had this happen.
00:29:49.000And I tried to get it out, and that's when I made the decision.
00:29:52.000I said, Catherine, I'm either in 1,000% or I'm 1,000% out.
00:29:57.000I have to make a decision right now, because this is too much.
00:30:01.000Then my other kid, who's about the same age as this little boy, Miguel's not his real name, but in the film, my kid who's his age takes the necklace.
00:30:46.000I know that for the sake of filmmaking, you guys had to do it the way you did, and it was masterfully done, but that story, I'm sorry, is just Told naturally is a bet it's better here You are not realizing what you've been given you go home and you're saying we make this decision and then your kids like He gave you your name tag.
00:32:15.000You know, it was like, just imagine that.
00:32:18.000I will stop everything that I'm doing.
00:32:20.000I will hope that the entire world will stop everything they're doing so they can help me to find my son, my daughter, my niece, my nephew, right?
00:33:48.000We need to shake the conscience of America, because yes, let's celebrate freedom in one hand, but let's do something else so we can bring freedom back to those children that are not free, brother.
00:34:08.000People like to make jokes that we live in a simulation.
00:34:11.000And it's because reality seems to be too absurd.
00:34:15.000We've had so many weird goings-on in politics of President Donald Trump, and so you'll see many of these individuals who are secular atheists tweet things like, I hope the writers of this season, you know, do X, Y, or Z, as if to imply there is someone with greater power over us that they're starting to believe.
00:34:32.000Yeah, I always find it funny that they could entertain such an idea without realizing, like, you're literally talking about divine purpose or God.
00:34:40.000I bring that up because Seeing the movie, hearing the stories, it feels, like I mentioned, the Timoteo necklace thing, I'm like, that was masterful writing, I wish it was real.
00:34:51.000And then you start to realize that some things in life are so miraculous that you would assume it was written to be a story, that it never could really happen, but these things do happen.
00:35:04.000When that kid, when you told the story of the little kid saying, I don't belong here.
00:35:10.000My thought was, why would a five-year-old say that?
00:35:13.000Unless what was happening was so out of alignment with the law of nature, whatever you want to call it, with God's plan or whatever, that there was direct intervention to correct this evil and set it right.
00:35:26.000And little did I know, you know, like when you get into the Columbia scene and I remember being in Columbia and I'm meeting these guys and this is after I've left the government and it's one of our first big operations and I remember thinking, Man, like, no one believes me.
00:35:44.000Like, I go home and tell them, my family and friends, I have a very small audience at this time, right?
00:35:55.000And I remember thinking, I was going through a whole island scene, and you see the whole Columbia scene, most of the movie, it's filmed on location, by the way, where these things happened, including this van scene with the kid at the port of entry.
00:36:06.000They filmed it, Homeland Security gave us permission to film right in the very place where it happened.
00:36:13.000But I remember thinking, I wish I had cameras in my eyes.
00:36:16.000I remember having that thought, is that millions of people could watch what I'm seeing because they don't believe it.
00:36:21.000And so who would have thought, like I said, another miracle that eight, nine years later, literally millions of people would see it through my eyes because of this guy.
00:36:31.000Thanks for that, man, and to you for your sacrifice, Tim, because meeting a hero, a true hero, it changed your life.
00:36:38.000No, but here's the thing, I'm not that, because I love history, okay?
00:36:43.000We had slavery in this country at a time, horrific, nothing worse than the transatlantic slave trade.
00:36:58.000When Lincoln met Harry Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, for the first time in the middle of the Civil War, he said to her, so you're the little lady that wrote the big book.
00:37:07.000that started this war. Wow. What he was saying was, because he at that point in 1862, he had
00:37:13.000changed the purpose of the Civil War to just bring in the Union back to, no, we're gonna use this to
00:37:18.000liberate the captive. And it was Harry Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, all
00:37:25.000the great abolitionists, they changed it. They converted him to the true cause.
00:37:31.000And so he, I'm so tired of you calling me like a hero or whatever because like what's going to end this thing is you and you and you like the storytellers are going to end this.
00:38:44.000That scene where the other agent says, I don't think I can do this, I'm thinking to myself, how is a job like this possible?
00:38:51.000Because, spoilers, I know I warned you.
00:38:55.000In the film, I don't know how true to life the direct lines are or whatever, but Your character, you know, you go to this pedophile and you say that in watching these films, you can't help but be attracted to it.
00:39:09.000And I'm watching this thinking like, I don't see that as being a physical, mental possibility for me.
00:39:17.000I imagine that if I was in a circumstance, I'd quit on the spot.
00:39:21.000The moment anyone tried to bring anything up, I'd punch the monitor.
00:39:27.000Watching this film, I'm in the middle of it, and I'm thinking, am I wrong about the death penalty?
00:39:34.000That's how seriously I was moved by this.
00:39:35.000I'm very anti-death penalty, but seeing this message made me really just start to think about what the Founding Fathers meant, how they went through this, what does it really mean, and it really challenged my moral views on how we deal with crimes like this.
00:41:11.000There are people who have abused children who have been convicted of abusing children in a court of law and have served their sentences and now they're just out in public.
00:41:19.000How can you serve a sentence for that crime?
00:41:34.000Brian Peck, he was convicted of abusing a child and then after he was released from prison, what the court said is he was not allowed to work with children.
00:41:43.000He previously worked at Disney Channel.
00:41:44.000The Disney Channel hired him back, but to speak to them over the phone and consult over the phone so he wouldn't be around children.
00:42:08.000So I'll tell you, I have a million holes burned in my brain, that's how I describe it.
00:42:13.000And yes, one of the hardest scenes for me to watch is in fact the scene where you were, you know, Jim's crying.
00:42:20.000It's, I can't tell you how real that is.
00:42:21.000I don't know, a couple thousand hours maybe, over 10 years, having to watch these videos.
00:42:27.000And these aren't, you know, I remember talking to my friend once and they're like, oh come on, I mean, how can you tell the difference between a 17 year old and an 18 year old?
00:42:33.000I'm like, you think that's what child porn is?
00:44:57.000When people are cheering for the good guys in that, I'm... But Ian, the reason I wanted to bring you into this is Ian used to moderate for a social media website.
00:45:06.000I don't know the degree to the awful things you saw in doing moderation.
00:45:09.000Did not even hold a candle to what you've been through, man, or what you've seen.
00:45:12.000I'd see every once in a while, I'd see a leg get blown off.
00:45:20.000But it was, I had to, it broke me after, and I kept doing it and it kept breaking me and then I, I just kept doing it because it was one, I had to, someone had to do it.
00:45:29.000I don't think human minds are supposed to be able to look at that stuff.
00:45:33.000They say that people who work at Facebook and these social media platforms, this kind of stuff gets uploaded, you know, to varying degrees.
00:45:39.000I'm not saying just one kind of awful content.
00:45:41.000There's varying degrees of really bad stuff from someone just getting mercilessly attacked, to murdered, to child exploitation.
00:45:47.000And there are stories about these Facebook employees who are completely traumatized from working this job where they're trying to remove this stuff and I think people should realize that that was one of the reasons I think the film is so good because that issue right there like understand man there there are people who if If you don't watch it, how do you stop these guys?
00:46:06.000You've got to prove in a court of law, you've got to have them arrested, you have to have them stand trial, and the evidence has to be shown.
00:46:13.000You want to share, like, for example, this is not in the movie because, I mean, it's very difficult to make a movie about this guy when he's telling you, like, so many beautiful, powerful, like, stories, you know, about saving children, and you have only two hours.
00:46:27.000He said, brother, we need to do a TV series because I need like 200 episodes to tell your story, you know?
00:47:26.000There's a scene in the film where you're on the island and the Don, I think his name was right, tries taking one of the kids and you intervene, your character intervenes.
00:47:41.000It's the scene where you're trying to sting these guys, save these kids.
00:47:47.000But before the rest of the kids arrive, because you don't know where they're at, this guy tries to rape a child.
00:47:54.000Your character, I don't know if this is absolutely true as to how it happened or whatever, but your character intervenes and says, no, this one's mine.
00:48:02.000And the guy puts a gun to his head and says, step out of the way.
00:48:05.000And that's a scary thought that, I don't know, you can answer to this, circumstances where you have to collect information to shut these guys down.
00:48:15.000But if you stop them in the moment, you jeopardize the whole mission, and it could put a hundred kids' lives at risk.
00:48:22.000But that kid right there needs saving now.
00:48:24.000I could not imagine what you do in a moment like this other than, I would assume, just save that kid.
00:49:27.000So those kind of things never actually have to happen.
00:49:30.000Did you, having spent time with, like, pedophiles, pederasts, because phile means love, like familial love, philia is like love of friend, but it's eros, it's erotic love.
00:50:13.000He thought it was like an older, and then he found out that she was like 13 years old, and that's when he said, oh my gosh, I'm gonna kill myself.
00:50:20.000But I don't think he actually was with somebody who was underage.
00:50:23.000No, he was actually never with someone underage.
00:50:25.000So this, for those that haven't seen it, you know, for context, I know it is spoilers, but this is someone you were working with to try and stop the exploitation of kids.
00:50:33.000The reason I ask if there's a road to redemption, or you would think, is because, like, Tim, you mentioned it tested your morality, your Your thoughts of the death penalty started creeping in.
00:50:42.000And when I was watching the movie, I was thinking, surveillance state.
00:50:45.000Why don't we have a surveillance state to watch for these and to take to prevent this stuff?
00:50:50.000And like, because a surveillance state would be horrific.
00:50:53.000And you were saying you wish that you had cameras in your eyes like they can do that.
00:51:04.000And when we make laws, and we give power to government under the assumption it will always be good, bad people find a way to exploit that power in some way in very, very awful and dangerous ways, to the point where Epstein was actually, I think he was caught early on, and he got some kind of sweetheart deal, and then was released.
00:51:22.000Now you've got, well Epstein's no longer here but he's arrested, Maxwell was convicted, and so we think that we enact these laws of surveillance state, for instance, we'll stop them, no.
00:51:31.000Sooner or later, a bad person exploits the system, takes advantage of it, and now we're underneath them wielding that power against us, which makes it very difficult.
00:51:41.000I'm not going to pretend to be the expert on how we do it or how it should be done, but we have to be careful about giving too much power to one institution or organization unless it be wielded in negative ways.
00:51:50.000Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself because I think what a big part of the solution is, like you were saying, it's the storytelling.
00:51:59.000It's letting people know that it happened.
00:52:01.000But what I'm chomping at the bit, is it just more undercover sting operations?
00:52:28.000Angel Studios is putting it out called Triple Take, and it dissects everything that happened on that island.
00:52:33.000But after we did those three hits, 120 rescues, 15 traffickers down, we went back under different undercover faces we've sent them in and asked the same people who otherwise would have introduced you to the traffickers and everyone was like, don't even talk about that.
00:52:58.000These guys are looking over their shoulder.
00:53:00.000For the first time, there's some kind of a consequence that can make the barrier to entry into this black market of child slavery, you know, too high to entry.
00:53:09.000I do love them saying the Americans came down.
00:53:19.000The idea of some kind of divine intervention and the idea of just the plain old physical reality in which you are saving kids, you are telling this story, gives me hope, makes me believe in the good, makes me feel like, you know, I don't understand how someone out there could be a nihilist.
00:53:38.000Someone out there could be pessimistic about where we're headed.
00:53:42.000There are bad people out there, but these are the stories that give you hope.
00:53:45.000And I hope people, for one, go see this movie right now.
00:53:51.000But I hope people are moved by this to the point where they, in some way, get involved.
00:53:56.000The message at the end of the film from Jim, and from you guys, about this could maybe inspire people the way Uncle Tom's Cabin did, I love it.
00:54:04.000This, this, uh, the issue of trafficking often comes up, uh, in the film Nefarious.
00:54:13.000More of like a talking piece, but there's an excellent line, spoiler alert, it's been out for a little while, where, you know, this guy, this, this psychiatrist thinks he's this virtuous dude, And then the demon says there are more people in slavery today than when slavery was legal.
00:54:29.000And then he says, I don't know how many, a large portion or like more of them, most of them are sex slaves.
00:54:34.000And you sit here thinking that you're doing good, that humans have improved.
00:54:38.000And that's the kind of stuff where I'm just like...
00:54:43.000We need to figure out how we put an end to this.
00:54:45.000And it's only gonna happen if people are moved to believe in something.
00:54:48.000I often talk about why there's crime, we talk about rising crime in cities, and I say it's not the laws necessarily, it's our moral, it's our cultures, it's our moral framework.
00:54:57.000If people who live in these cities don't care, if they're gonna stand by and just watch the crimes happen, if the police aren't going to intervene to arrest people, if laws are actually being put in place or precedent that stops people from saving the day, you will continue to see this stuff degrade.
00:55:11.000But if more and more people hold in their hearts that certain things should not be there, unthinkable, and we will do something to stop it, it becomes normal.
00:55:20.000There will always be evil, but... I think we've, for the longest time, at least in my life, so much of what we've seen in big cities especially with the rise in crime is...
00:55:40.000I mean, I have never seen in my life so many people that they go, they go to see Sound of Freedom and when they leave the theater, they videotape themselves and they share their testimony with tears, crying, their heart are speaking.
00:55:54.000And then they share that with all their, you know, their followers.
00:55:58.000Those are our posters, because we don't have a budget for posters, but we have millions of people talking about this film, and that's the movement.
00:56:05.000No one can stop this movement anymore.
00:58:06.000There's been many others, but to do what we do and the way we do it, but that's changed.
00:58:11.000In the last 10 years, lots of vet groups and former law enforcement guys have built these amazing organizations.
00:58:18.000So my goal now, I've left the two organizations that I love, and I still love, and I will still support, so that I can support all the others, because that's what the kids deserve.
00:58:28.000I mean, again, if I'm being honest, I'm not going to say that the one I built is the end-all for everybody.
00:58:35.000But there is an end-all for that one or that one.
00:58:57.000It's an exciting time because I think we can maybe end this thing.
00:59:04.000I imagine there's multiple tiers of reasoning why it's happening.
00:59:08.000It's like a financial reason for the people at the very top, and then it's like a sexual reason for the depraved that are purchasing into it.
00:59:16.000But how do you disincentivize the financial aspect?
00:59:19.000Do you just make them terrified that everyone around them is going to turn them in next?
00:59:36.000I hope every pedophile and trafficker is scared out of their mind right now because they know that it's not just OUR, it's not just the Nazarene Fund, but it's going to be every other group that's going to be empowered now through this film, through the Spirit Fund, and I want them to be looking over their shoulders and thinking twice before they put their hand on a kid.
00:59:52.000Why do you think it is so many media outlets were attacking the film, insulting it, saying QAnon or paranoid?
01:00:00.000It's so bizarre because this film was made, produced, written five, six years ago before QAnon was even a thing, so it's impossible what they're saying.
01:00:13.000There's an agenda out there, and there's a conversation to be had, and these outlets don't want to have it.
01:00:19.000By the way, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, they all praised this operation when it happened.
01:00:24.000They don't remember, it was eight years ago, but I have the articles.
01:00:26.000Look at these guys rescuing these kids in Columbia!
01:00:28.000And now, eight years later, oh, it's QAnon, it didn't even happen, blah blah.
01:00:32.000There's a conversation they don't want to have.
01:00:34.000They don't want to talk about the fact that there's 85,000 unaccompanied minors who came to our border and were released and lost in a country that's the highest consumer for child sex material.
01:00:51.000I used to be able to arrest people for providing the material to children that teachers are currently giving to kids under the guise of sex education.
01:01:00.000They don't want to talk about 13-year-old girls being able to consent.
01:01:05.000And I'm very libertarian when it comes to all these things for an adult, right?
01:02:25.000But this quite literally is one of their big arguments.
01:02:27.000There have been numerous writers in what they call the queer movement who have talked about children consenting.
01:02:34.000There are prominent activists who are making this argument and in fact tomorrow we're actually going to be having a debate about, I'll keep it vague for a little bit because I don't want to Spoil it or scare off the people who are coming on the show, but there's going to be a conversation about what is or isn't appropriate for kids.
01:02:53.000We have people come on and debate various ideas, and I'll show these books to people and say, for what reason should children be shown these books?
01:04:54.000So I criticize a story and I get these leftist publications Attacking me for it.
01:05:00.000My response was, if my position is that child abusers are bad and you rush to their defense and attack me over it, my only assumption is you're a child abuser or you are in support of child abuse.
01:05:29.000And these guys also, every one of them, most of these publications, by the way, you're gonna find they're also promoting this, stop calling them pedophiles, that's mean!
01:05:43.000Do you think that, I've heard yesterday, I think you mentioned, the average age of a child that sees pornography on the internet is 7 years old.
01:06:14.000The internet is a publicly accessible space, in much the same way.
01:06:18.000But for some reason, we have not enforced laws preventing people from posting obscene, lewd, lascivious images in places children have access to.
01:06:33.000And I'm like, we don't have the freedom to go and take an advertising truck with a TV on it, park it in the middle of Times Square, and play porn.
01:07:08.000If you see what kids are doing, you're going to talk about this tomorrow on your show.
01:07:12.000But what adults are doing to kids in these forums, in these parades they're doing, or the drag queen shows, I mean, you've seen the videos.
01:07:30.000And here we are again, and there are states, I think Tennessee, who are trying to create laws that protect kids from that material.
01:07:39.000You can't just post whatever, there's certain barriers, there's ID requirements that have to be verified for a kid to get through a certain wall in the internet.
01:07:49.000I think that's important, to protect kids.
01:07:51.000Yeah, one thing I want to mention here, you were sort of talking about genderqueer and a lot of this perverse literature that they're putting into the school system.
01:07:59.000One thing that a lot of people aren't aware of is that this isn't something on the fringes, and even what you were talking about with respect to the pedophile who's depicted at the beginning of Sound of Freedom, who has written about how he thinks these are natural impulses and society's puritanical.
01:08:14.000This person, unfortunately, is part of a movement which is much broader and more mainstream than people realize.
01:08:20.000Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy, all of the premier sex researchers who we are told to look to as experts and pioneers said similar things.
01:08:29.000Kinsey wrote in his book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, that the reason a girl is traumatized when she's abused when she's underage is because the parents made a big deal out of it and not because of what actually happened.
01:08:55.000And there's a table, infamously, titled Table 34, that includes data tables.
01:09:00.000Which only could have been collected through the abuse of children.
01:09:04.000I'm not gonna graphically explain what those data tables purport to measure, but it's hundreds and hundreds of boys under the age of 15 who had to have been raped for him to get that information.
01:09:16.000His co-author, author Wardell Pomeroy, was in Time Magazine in the 1980s saying out loud that he thinks incest between adults and children can be, in his words, beneficial.
01:09:26.000This is not even hiding under the rug.
01:09:28.000There's an interview on the Phil Donahue Show with people from the Kinsey Institute and Judith Riesman, and they're defending all of this, saying that it was okay.
01:09:36.000So these aren't fringe weirdos here and there.
01:09:38.000This stuff is way more mainstream than people realize.
01:09:43.000But he's the father, by the way, not only of our modern sex education programs, like this stuff, he's also the father of the pedophile movement.
01:09:57.000I mean, you clearly know your stuff on that.
01:10:00.000You're talking about this pedophile at the beginning of the film and also a real guy that you studied who made that claim that all men have these predilections or whatever.
01:10:10.000It's it's exactly like it's the projection.
01:10:13.000It's the world must be the way I see it Everyone must see the world the way I do.
01:10:16.000There's no other explanation certainly You know, I'll put it this way.
01:10:21.000I don't think I was ever accused these people of being smart something's clearly wrong with them but It's like, my dude, every country on the planet is, to varying degrees, wants to stop you.
01:13:57.000I remember back in the day there was a viral video of three guys murdering someone that was going around.
01:14:02.000And if you were just some kid and your parents gave you a phone or a computer, you saw a graphic and brutal murder take place.
01:14:10.000Children should not be watching that stuff.
01:14:11.000Well, you made this point about the fact that you wouldn't be allowed in an adult bookstore if you were just walking down the street or a place that sells pornography.
01:14:21.000And not only that, but Pornhub banned access in the state of Utah because Utah passed a law saying we need to have stricter methods of verifying people's ages so that kids don't end up viewing porn on this website.
01:14:37.000So not only is it the case that kids are allowed into these like digital establishments, the companies actually throw a fit when they aren't.
01:15:07.000The Trevor Project posted this interface that they were advertising to talk to somebody about your sexual identity, and if you hit the escape button three times, it deletes all of your browser history, and they were advertising that.
01:15:58.000So, we didn't actually get into it, and I see someone, we got a super chat, someone was asking, Mike Spencer, why did it take so long for this film to come out?
01:16:06.000I mean, you said you started making it, what, eight years ago?
01:16:09.000Eight years ago, that's when I met Tim Mallert.
01:16:11.000Yeah, five years to get it released after that?
01:16:14.000Well, actually, it was three years of writing the script.
01:16:17.000It was two years of pre-production, production, and post-production.
01:16:21.000So I finished the film three years ago.
01:16:24.000And at that time it was owned by Fox, Fox Latin America.
01:16:56.000And next thing you know, it was like, Tim, I mean, should we put this on YouTube for free?
01:17:02.000I mean, we need to save children, but we need to raise awareness.
01:17:05.000I mean, I was about to call my investors, like, hey, you know, we did everything, but it seems like someone doesn't want this movie to be in theaters.
01:18:19.000I don't know, I sent like a hundred messages.
01:18:23.000I know people that they know, the CEO of Netflix and everything, and they try and they try and they try and nothing, nothing, nothing until I just, you know what?
01:18:46.000We cannot wait until this revision happens.
01:18:49.000And that's when I had this idea of, why don't we do a tour in Mexico?
01:18:52.000Where we invite every governor of each state to host a screening, to invite all the leaders from every single sector of our society in each state, and then we show the movie to a thousand people, and then at the end we sign an agreement where we commit to end child trafficking in that state.
01:19:08.000And we did like 20 states, and I was about to finish the other 12 states when I received the phone call from Angel Studios.
01:20:19.000I just got a phone call today and someone told me, hey, did you read this article where Disney is denying that they used to own the rights of the film?
01:20:41.000They're humiliated, because can you imagine?
01:20:44.000This is like the Goliath, David and Goliath, right?
01:20:46.000We're the little David here fighting this big monster who is corrupting your children.
01:20:52.000Son of Freedom wants to save your children, And then the only message we gave to the people, thanks be to God for the media who are supporting us like you guys, this is what we said.
01:21:06.000A. In order for us to be David, we need you.
01:21:09.000So if we all come together as one voice, we can be that David that will defeat Goliath.
01:21:14.000If that happens, we know the end of the story.
01:21:18.000We defeated Goliath, at least, on July 4th.
01:21:34.000The second week we have 400 theaters more and I just heard that we have three more hundred theaters.
01:21:40.000So this thing is growing and growing because of the people are, and you know why too, the people are very generous.
01:21:46.000When they go to angel.com slash freedom, People can buy tickets for themselves, for their family, but they can buy through Pay It Forward to other people, other families that they cannot afford to go to bring their family to the theaters.
01:22:01.000And because of their generosity, these other people can see the film for free.
01:22:05.000That is changing the entire, you know, I mean, we're breaking the establishment, brother.
01:22:11.000I just, I hope that there's some executive or some like mid-level guy who is like, we don't want to do this film.
01:22:16.000The media says that it's a faith-based film or whatever, a conservative, and I'm like, I don't understand.
01:22:21.000It's because you didn't why the film was done Five years angel three is angel.com slash freedom. Yes
01:22:29.000I'm gonna I'm gonna pay a thousand bucks for this. This is the funny thing to the other
01:22:34.000Nation man the media says that it's a faith-based film or whatever a conservative and I'm like, I don't understand
01:22:42.000I used to watch Law & Order SVU all the time I'm like this is just like if you took if you made a movie
01:22:47.000that was like in a similar fashion They say, you know, sexual crimes are considered especially heinous.
01:24:37.000It's not a conservative film, it's just a film.
01:24:38.000And I'm like, that's what needs to happen.
01:24:40.000Because if the bare minimum of what we do is we end the weird subtlety of darkness and this erosion, and we just course correct and start working towards things that inspire people to be more virtuous or moral, we're winning.
01:25:10.000It's not parents, neither schools, it's the media.
01:25:13.000So media, I mean, it's good or bad, whatever.
01:25:15.000It's just, it's just a mean, you know, how you use it is what changed everything, right?
01:25:19.000So Art has the power to change people's hearts.
01:25:22.000Plato said, if I have to choose between art or politics to govern a nation, he said I would choose art, because art has the power to touch people's hearts and change their minds, therefore how they think, how they live, how they behave.
01:25:38.000And young people, they have this tendency to imitate art.
01:25:42.000When they go and see the movie, they imitate what they see.
01:25:45.000So can you imagine if we just lead by example?
01:25:48.000That's why Tim Ballard in the movie, Gene Caviezel, he speaks very little.
01:25:52.000Everything is just actions, actions, actions, because action speaks a thousand words, right?
01:25:57.000And our hope is that when people see this movie, Sound of Freedom, they will live not only entertained, but they will live inspired, wanting to love more, wanting to forgive more, wanting to become the best version of yourself.
01:26:52.000Who deserves luxury more than those who are doing good to benefit the world?
01:26:56.000Is it the celebrity or the music, you know?
01:26:59.000I've always thought this when I was younger, like, why is it that a firefighter gets paid a lower salary but a baseball player is a multi-millionaire?
01:27:06.000And so, of course, I'm being a bit facetious and I don't really expect you guys to buy those things, but I hope that The younger generation sees success of this movie, the millions of dollars, they see the movement, and they think the path to success is being a good, moral person who fights for the betterment of the world.
01:27:24.000And I want Tim Ballard to roll up in a nice car with a nice suit and the kids to be like, how do I be like him?
01:27:29.000It's like, oh, you save children's lives.
01:27:50.000How do we shift that to the guy walking on stage with the nice suit and the gold chains is the guy who saves children for a living?
01:27:56.000Well, thank you for that, but at the same time, you may agree with me, you may not agree with me, but I have to say it, and that's how I feel.
01:28:06.000Mother Teresa said we are not called to be successful.
01:28:58.000These people, many of these leftists are virtue signalers, they'll say whatever they have to say just to make money for themselves so they can buy themselves a mansion.
01:29:04.000If the money generated from people seeing this movie doesn't go towards Lamborghinis and infinity pools, and in fact goes towards making more culture building, making more movies, inspiring more people to do better, That passion and that drive and that mission is something they don't have.
01:29:26.000This is like our... I mean, we made a promise that we would dedicate our entire life to child trafficking and this is not gonna be, you know, ended with one movie.
01:31:36.000Well, you know, my wife saw Narcos Colombia on Netflix and she's afraid for me to go to Colombia to film this movie.
01:31:42.000Oh man, I hated that because, you know, again, media influence how people think.
01:31:46.000Latinos, we have been stereotyped in a very negative way since the footage on Tuesday.
01:31:51.000And a lot of people here in this country, they think Latinos, we are a threat to the democracy of this country because they think that we are what they see on film or television, all the negative stereotypes.
01:32:00.000So, and these TV series, they do a lot of damage.
01:32:04.000And here you have this Gene Caviezel's wife saying he's not going to Colombia.
01:32:41.000We have 200 people, extras, actors, whatever, you know?
01:32:44.000And I noticed that half of them were not there.
01:32:47.000So, One month and a half later, I'm reading this local newspaper from Colombia that it says that the federal police arrested some traffickers and rescued more than 200 children in Cartagena, Colombia, who were kidnapped for sexual exploitation.
01:33:02.000And more details, like in the movie, very similar story to the movie.
01:33:04.000So I run to see Tim Ballard and I said, brother, look, like in the movie.
01:33:08.000And he smiled and he said, that was us.
01:33:55.000I mean, the second week, brother, of filming, half of these guys were rescuing 200 children, and I'm thinking, wait a second.
01:34:02.000Thank God for Gene Caviezel's wife, who said no in the beginning.
01:34:05.000Because of that no, he was inspired, Tim Butler, to bring Teddy, ex-Navy SEALs, and because of those Teddy, ex-Navy SEALs, half of them rescued 200 children before the film was even finished.
01:34:49.000Never imagine that eight years later, 5 million people are watching this film in America.
01:34:54.000I mean, if this is not the American dream for me, for a Mexican filmmaker who moved to this country 20 years ago without speaking English, I'm hugging the American dream.
01:35:24.000She said yes, and later 200 children are free.
01:35:27.000Maybe the reason she had that feeling that she needed people there wasn't so much to protect Jim, but because something was calling her to send in the troops to save his kids.
01:35:49.000If you haven't already, would you kindly smash that like button, subscribe to this channel, share the show with your friends, and head over to TimCast.com, become a member by clicking join us.
01:35:57.000We're going to have a members only segment.
01:35:59.000If you guys have been a member for at least six months, you can submit questions and potentially call into the show to talk to us and ask questions, and of our guests.
01:36:05.000And if you sign up right now, at least at the $25 per month level, you can immediately submit to ask questions.
01:36:11.000We have to have this gate to keep out nefarious actors who want to come in and screw with us, and then we have a screening process.
01:36:17.000And I do want to be honest, at this point, many of the callers may have already been chosen, so I don't want to, you know, get your hopes up if you've not signed up yet, but come and watch the Members Only After Show, which will be up in about 25 minutes, but for now, we'll read your Super Chats.
01:36:30.000Let's grab... I want to try and find the best superchats directly asking questions of you guys so we can get into that.
01:36:36.000Spencer Jones says, Tim, I met you a few years ago via Marisol Nichols.
01:41:03.000Except for the one little girl, you've got to tell that story.
01:41:05.000Yeah, but that was an accident, brother.
01:41:06.000I know, but you've got to tell that story because it's beautiful.
01:41:07.000Well, you know, this is what happened.
01:41:09.000So we have the parents of the children, the children on this island, and we have like these two coaches.
01:41:16.000They were like the acting teachers, right?
01:41:18.000So Alejandro was communicating with them and with their parents to get the emotions.
01:41:22.000But that day, The two teachers, you know, they had to go somewhere else, so they sent a new teacher, a new coach, and Alejandro didn't know about that, the director.
01:41:33.000So, next thing you know, we're doing a very important scene, which is, you know, the scene where they close the curtains.
01:41:38.000I don't want to say a lot, you know, because I don't want to spoil this, but anyway, she's supposed to be crying because before that scene, she was abused, sexually abused by an adult, right?
01:43:13.000I want to make sure that his innocence and purity is intact, right?
01:43:17.000And it was just an accident here, but that scene, when you see that scene, when you see the film again, because when you watch this film for the second time and the third time it's even better.
01:43:26.000I have seen the film like a thousand times as a producer and I cry like every single time and it speaks to me in a different way.
01:43:32.000But that scene breaks my heart because I know, I know what happened.
01:43:35.000It was one take and that's what they used.
01:47:08.000And she's like, I think she said she was in her early 20s.
01:47:11.000They walk outside and she's, I think what the story was that she was texting on her phone and her boyfriend and his two friends were about 10 feet in front of her laughing and you know, joking and stuff.
01:47:21.000She's lagging behind when a car pulls up They pop the door open, run out, grab her, and try and pull her into the car.
01:47:47.000No, it's like one of them is like kids are playing outside, a car pulls up, snatches a kid, and the other kids are just like, what do we do?
01:47:58.000Sometimes they just do it in your own house, you know?
01:48:01.000Their innocence and their purity are being stolen forever when your kid is having a smartphone.
01:48:07.000and start talking to strangers to another kid who is being kidnapped by someone else and they use him as a hook to connect with your child.
01:48:14.000Next thing you know, they start... That happened to my niece in Mexico the other day.
01:48:17.000My cousin calls me, Eduardo, your niece.
01:48:20.000I mean, I've been following you and because of the whole movement now, I'm like more alert as a parent, you know?
01:48:25.000And I noticed that she was acting weird, you know?
01:48:28.000My daughter, she's eight years old, eight years old.
01:48:31.000And she happens to be, for the last six months, she was talking to these strangers and she was sharing pictures of her, you know, of her body.
01:48:41.000I mean, if she wouldn't caught her on time, God knows what next.
01:50:30.000The integrity and the purity of the film is right there so everyone can see it and it can be digestible, you know?
01:50:37.000The first part of the movie is the problem, the second part of the movie is the solution and the hope, because we want people to live with hope.
01:50:43.000Yes, tears because this is real, but with hope.
01:51:18.000Do you think that parents should bring their kids if they're 13 and up, or is that just like a parent by parent decision?
01:51:26.000Thirteen up, I think they should because you're not going to see anything that you have to cover your eyes or you have to cover the eyes of your kid.
01:51:37.000I made that promise to God one day and I made a promise to my mother and to my father 20 years ago when I promised together I would never use my talents to do anything that would offend my faith, my family, or my Latino culture.
01:51:47.000After I made that promise I ended up not working for 4 years and I lost everything.
01:51:51.000That's why I became a producer because as an actor I was tired of waiting for a role that would portray a man as a real man.
01:51:57.000So I was led to open a production company so I could have the power to control the message.
01:52:01.000And I told my mother, you know, I'm going to make a promise to you that every film that Alejandro Monteverdi and I will do, you don't have to cover your eyes in any scene.
01:53:04.000Let's talk about, you know, platform release, right?
01:53:07.000So the original cut was then two hours, 35 minutes, because you can launch movies like that in platforms and you don't have to like, you know, the one hour, 45 minutes or two hours rule for theaters.
01:53:18.000So we have a cut that is one hour, I mean, two hours, 35 minutes, that is like a meditation, man.
01:53:26.000And of course we want to launch that later.
01:53:28.000I actually thought, I wondered if you were going to have it for streaming, like 10 bucks to download it from your website, but there was something special about being in the theater.
01:53:35.000Jim even talked about it at the end of the movie.
01:53:37.000I mean, I remember the vision of seeing the people in front of me as we're talking about it.
01:54:49.000We did ask about why it took so long to make the movie, but that's your Super Chat, so we do appreciate it.
01:54:54.000Atherin Zala says the movie was great and reminded me of Proof of Life.
01:54:57.000I was wondering if you going into the jungle near the end of the film was true, and do you think that part might put doctors doing that in any danger?
01:55:06.000So, we just addressed this a little bit, but I was thinking it would be a good chance to clarify.
01:55:12.000The camp you did go to, first I guess, it was not in Columbia, you did go to a camp.
01:55:52.000I mean, what we're doing is dangerous, too.
01:55:54.000I mean, we don't have to go to the jungle.
01:55:56.000What we're doing right now, just going into Mexico, showing this movie in 32 states, telling the people this is real and we're going to end it, is dangerous.
01:56:05.000Because when you are confronting, when you're fighting with this more than $150 billion industry, That's not a small thing, right?
01:56:23.000My prayer every day to God is, okay, when it's my time, when you knock at my door and it's time to go, please find me working for you.
01:56:35.000And I feel that we're working for For God, by saving children.
01:56:39.000That's why I always say God's children are not for sale and that's my motivation every day to wake up and to give my life for a cause, for a mission, for something that is bigger than myself.
01:56:49.000Kim McKersie says, it ain't much Timbo, but please if possible forward these super chat funds to Tim Ballard's cause.
01:58:38.000As much as I like Tom Cruise and Mission Impossible, That movie won't save lives.
01:58:45.000Sound of Freedom is changing the culture, is saving lives, and is inspiring so many people to become ambassadors of freedom.
01:58:54.000So thank you for your generosity, and I hope a lot of people that are listening to this interview, this podcast, they go right now, when this interview finishes, to angel.com slash freedom, angel.com slash freedom, and pay it forward so somebody else can see the movie for free because of your generosity.
01:59:11.000I should have said this at the start of the show, but I will elaborate too.
01:59:15.000So, the way it works, we have this meter here on YouTube that shows us the total amount of Super Chats that came in during the show.
01:59:22.000What happens is YouTube takes 35%, we get the rest.
01:59:26.000The total number that's there, I'm going to donate to your organization, and then $10,000 towards the Pay It Forward for people to be able to watch this movie, to be able to go see it if they can.
01:59:50.000We'll wrap up the show from here because we're going to go to the members-only portion of the show over at TimCast.com.
01:59:55.000So as we're closing out, if you'd like to contribute to the Super Chats, I will immediately, as we're on the members-only, I will be making that contribution in the full amount of all of our Super Chat revenue, plus the donation to the movie.
02:00:06.000We've been talking about doing this thing where we give $10,000 every month to someone engaged in a cultural effort that's going to be a positive impact.
02:00:16.000We'll still try and find someone that we can give, you know, who needs the money to get their project going, but I will absolutely see to it that, you know, we'll do that, because... See, you guys, you're the guys, you're the movement.
02:00:29.000You're changing culture, because we did our part, you know, we made a movie.
02:00:36.000But without the people, without you, we go nowhere.
02:00:41.000So it's amazing how we're coming together and I believe that together we will end this nightmare.
02:00:49.000We will bring freedom to the children that are not free right now.
02:00:52.000I just realized a mistake with everything I was just saying.
02:00:55.000I can't give the total amount of Super Chats to your organization because people could just do that on their own.
02:01:00.000They could literally just go to your organization and make the donation.
02:01:31.000I wanna say, we gotta go with members only, and I wanna say one final thing before we do the outros, and give people an opportunity to send in those superchats, I will match them.
02:01:40.000The Timoteo scene in that film, it made me feel something indescribable.
02:01:47.000I call it divine intervention, but it's indescribable.
02:01:51.000That moment where you rescue a kid who gives you a name tag with your own name on it, I have no words, but for me, it makes me believe that everything we're doing has a purpose, has a reason.
02:02:05.000We are here for something bigger than us, something better than us, that will make everything better, that will improve things, that will lead us to Whatever the plan is, we are instruments of it.
02:03:39.000I want to shout out everything that you guys are doing, and Tim, you've been very humble in saying things like, oh, the storytellers are the people starting the movement, and we're a part of this movement, and I do believe there's power in story, but Sir, what you are doing and what you are saying about yourself, it's such a massive understatement.
02:03:59.000You have changed so many lives, and to go after just one lost child is such a beautiful imitation of Christ, and I want to thank you for that.
02:04:10.000I want to thank you for being that example in the world, and I want to thank you for all of the work you're doing and the work that you've done.
02:04:45.000He went over to Afghanistan during the surrender and was pulling people out over the course of a week and just freaking inspiration after inspiration.
02:05:22.000I've been trying to see the film this week, but I've been moving, so it's been a little bit difficult for me to get in between everything edgewise, but I will be seeing it on Saturday.
02:05:33.000This is going to wrap up the live portion of the show as we go to the members only, and When I said I would give you the Super Chat revenue, we had $3,000 in Super Chats.