September 17 – Patriot Mobile was honored to host a special screening of CITY OF DREAMS, a powerful new film shedding light on the realities of human trafficking in America. Executive Producer and former presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, joined us in Southlake, Texas, along with our founder and CEO, Glenn Story. Both shared inspiring messages about the importance of addressing this critical issue and the role we all play in advocating for freedom and justice.
Inspired by true events, City of Dreams follows Jesús, a young Mexican boy whose dreams of becoming a soccer star are shattered when he’s trafficked across the border and sold to a sweatshop making fast fashion in downtown Los Angeles.
The evening kicked off with opening remarks by Vivek Ramaswamy, who shared insights into his involvement with the film. “What this movie is about is a theme you might have imagined existing somewhere in the third world, in another hemisphere, in another century,” said Ramaswamy. “We tell ourselves that slavery ceased to exist in the United States in the 1860s. Well, not exactly.”
Ramaswamy linked the film’s theme to the current border crisis. “The ugly underbelly of our failed border policies is the scourge of child trafficking,” he explained. “It’s not compassion to allow someone to cross an open border at the scale we’re at… it is cruelty…,” he said, highlighting the alarming connection between our open border and human trafficking.
Ramaswamy points out that this crisis transcends partisan politics, saying, “If we can’t agree on the importance of addressing child trafficking in this country, I think that we’re done as a country.”
The screening drew over 220 attendees coming from as far as Louisiana and Idaho. The director, Mohit Ramchandani, and the lead actor Ari Lopez, were also present, leading a Q&A session after the screening. “I finished the movie in 2022 in October and no one wanted to distribute it,” Ramchandani said, sharing the challenges he encountered getting the film into theaters. He eventually secured a meeting with a producer of the hit film SOUND OF FREEDOM, which helped bring more high-profile influencers on board and raised enough funds to release the film nationwide. Despite this, the release has faced an ongoing battle against false media reports.
“Many of the ambassadors who were posting about the movie were getting banned on social media. There were reports that AMC theaters were telling people the movie was full when it was half empty,” he said. “I am really shocked at the tremendous amount of pushback. Wait a second, this is about kids. What does this have to do with the election?”
Perhaps it’s no wonder the film has generated so much opposition. Ramaswamy deems it the most important film of 2024. The subject is unsettling because it reveals the dark reality that child trafficking is happening within our own communities in America.
“My ask for you is, whatever you learn by watching this, don’t keep it to yourself. Tell your neighbors, tell your colleagues, tell the parents of your kids’ classmates. This is not someone else’s problem, this is our problem,” said Ramaswamy. He urged the audience to reach across the aisle, even if it feels uncomfortable. “Make sure you talk to someone who just doesn’t agree with you. Make sure you reach and talk to someone who doesn’t. That’s how we’re going to get our country back.”
Patriot Mobile encourages you to watch CITY OF DREAMS with your friends and family and help bring attention to this urgent crisis.
