Eduardo Verástegui

It might be the year's highest grossing independent film, but Sound of Freedom almost didn't make it to the day, thanks to major Hollywood studios' efforts to keep it from being out, and now its director and producer are calling out woke Hollywood on their years-long fight. Jim Caviezel, a former US government agent, is portrayed in this action drama in Colombia as a leader of a movement to save children from sex traffickers. The crowdfunded film, directed and co-written by Alejandro Monteverde and produced by Eduardo Verástegui, was held out of theaters for nearly a decade by studio executives who didn't agree with the company's beliefs and politics.

Eduardo Verástegui, the filmmaker of an anti-child trafficking film, Sound of Freedom, has said that his $14 million budget film, originally rejected by Hollywood, is more of a movement than a film. Verástegui said that the years-long struggle to get the thriller onto the big screen was worth it, and that he hopes it would act as a linchpin to put 'pressure' on governments to take concrete steps toward ending child trafficking. According to Verástegui, Tim Ballard, the popular film based on former Department of Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard has received'standing ovations.'