June Cover Story: New Jamie Chung Film Brings Attention to Sex Trafficking
Out of the Shadows
Story by OLIVER SARIA
Photographs by DIANA KING
Eden, a new film that garnered a heap of awards at this past spring’s South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas, deals with the issue of sex trafficking—in the United States. That statement is enough to raise eyebrows. Both its star Jamie Chung and the woman who inspired the film’s story, Chong Kim, hope it also spurs action to combat this hidden crime.
Jamie Chung arrives for our interview at a Los Angeles café bearing a gift for Chong Kim, the woman upon whom Chung’s latest film, Eden, is based. They hug one another warmly and sit side by side. Kim shares photos from her smartphone of her 12-year-old son and scrolls through some snapshots taken during the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, which both attended and where Eden won three awards: Narrative Feature Audience Award, SXSW Chicken & Egg Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award (Megan Griffiths) and Special Jury Recognition for Performance (Jamie Chung). There’s an ease and lightness between them that belies the gravity of the film, inspired by Kim’s horrific true-life ordeal.
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