Big Night

Marie Claire and supermodel Petra Nemcova shed light on sexual slavery at an exclusive event.

By Abigail Pesta

Not many people would be inclined to risk their lives to make a movie that exposes sexual slavery and corruption in Southeast Asia. But that’s exactly what producers Guy Jacobson and Adi Ezroni did when they shot their critically acclaimed feature film Holly in the seedy red-light districts of Cambodia. To honor their efforts, Marie Claire Editor-in-Chief Joanna Coles and supermodel Petra Nemcova hosted a private screening of the film — which tells the story of a young Vietnamese girl who is sold across the border into the brothels of Cambodia — on August 5 in New York City. More than 200 people came and raised a toast to the producers, who received a prestigious “Anti-Trafficking Heroes Award” from the U.S. State Department at the Marie Claire event.

When the film crew started shooting the movie in Cambodia, they riled up the brothel owners and mobsters who trade in the buying and selling of little girls for sex — which is big business in Southeast Asia, and around the world. The crew received death threats by the day from pimps who didn’t want their brutal practices exposed. But rather than be intimidated, Jacobson and Ezroni kept working, hiring dozens of armed bodyguards to help them get the job done. “Adi and I are used to people wanting to kill us — we’re from Israel,” Jacobson jokes. “People can get in line. No cutting.” Around the time the filming had wrapped up, the local police issued a warrant to detain the film’s crew for questions. Turned out, most of the crew had left the country already — but Ezroni hadn’t, so she was held there for several weeks. She eventually escaped by bribing a corrupt judge.

The film is part of a nonprofit organization launched by Jacobson called the Redlight Children Campaign, which is dedicated to fighting sexual slavery across the globe. The company LexisNexis sponsored the Marie Claire event, along with Jacobson’s film production company, Priority Films. Other sponsors included TaxPro founder Steve Saba, as well as Flowers of the World, which donated bouquets, and Royal Wine Corp., which provided drinks. After the private screening, everyone headed out to an after-party at New York City nightclub Mansion (for a slideshow of the evening's events, see below).

To learn more about sexual slavery and to find out what you can do to help, check out the website for the Redlight Children Campaign and its sister site, the Somaly Mam Foundation.

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