What: Showing of the Documentary Film “Playground”

When: Thursday, June 18, 2010 (During the time we are at the 2010 North Georgia Annual Conference)

Time: 7:30 p.m.

Where: Athens First United Methodist Church 327 Lumpkin St. Athens, GA 30601 Room: Hancock Hall

Who: Sponsored by the North Georgia Conference Connectional Ministries Advocacy Team

Why: The call for the “awakening” of faith communities to the issues that Georgia’s children face on a daily basis – issues of health care, education, poverty, juvenile justice and child prostitution and trafficking. As God’s presence in the world, we are called to be a faith community that practices hospitality in word and deed. Indeed, Christ calls each of us to be a blessing to all children--our own and those whom we know are in the most vulnerable of situations.

About the film: Sexual exploitation of children is a problem that we tend to relegate to back-alley brothels in developing countries, the province of a particularly inhuman, and invariably foreign, criminal element. Such is the initial premise of Libby Spears’ sensitive investigation into the topic. But she quickly concludes that very little thrives on this planet without American capital, and the commercial child sex industry is certainly thriving. Spears intelligently traces the epidemic to its disparate, and decidedly domestic, roots—among them the way children are educated about sex, and the problem of raising awareness about a crime that inherently cannot be shown. Her cultural observations are couched in an ongoing mystery story: the search for Michelle, an American girl lost to the underbelly of childhood sexual exploitation who has yet to resurface a decade later.

Executive produced by George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Steven Soderbergh, and punctuated with poignant animation by Japanese pop artist Yoshitomo Nara, Playground illuminates a sinister industry of unrecognized pervasiveness. Spears has crafted a comprehensive revelation of an unknown epidemic, essential viewing for any parent or engaged citizen.

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