The director of the hit film "Sound of Freedom," Alejandro Monteverde, and co-writer Rod Barr, published a joint article for The Hollywood Reporter magazine where they responded to critics who baselessly accuse the production of being politicized and promoting conspiracy theories.
Monteverde and Barr were emphatic and asserted that “'Sound of Freedom' is not a conservative or a liberal issue” and is meant to raise awareness about the negative impact of child trafficking globally, especially in the United States.
“As co-writers and director of the movie Sound of Freedom, it has been difficult to watch controversy and partisanship distract, even a little, from the deep intention of our work: to use the power of film to bring awareness to the reality of child trafficking,” the filmmakers wrote. “Way back in 2015, when we began researching and writing this project, we told each other many times, ‘If there’s one issue that can unite everyone, it’s ending child trafficking.’ We still believe that. Child trafficking is not a conservative or a liberal issue. It is a fundamental human rights issue, one that strikes at our very core as human beings.”
Monteverde and Barr’s article comes after several mainstream progressive media outlets, including The Washington Post, Rolling Stone magazine, The Guardian and Jezebel, attacked the film as QAnon propaganda.
Despite the attacks, “Sound of Freedom” is being praised by the film world and also commended by the general public, which has given it magnificent scores on major rating platforms such as Rotten Tomatoes, where the film has earned a 99% ‘fresh’ score by users.
On the other hand, critics have given the film a 68% positive score, a significant figure considering that some mainstream press analysts jumped on the narrative that ‘Sound of Freedom’ is a conspiracy movie.
“Sound of Freedom”: a hit with Republicans... and Democrats
Responding to the accusations and citing an article in Newsweek, Monteverde and Barr stress that the film has been a hit not only with Republicans but also with Democrats, a fact that demonstrates that the production’s underlying message is apolitical and tied to a human rights issue that should not bow to partisan labels.
“Why should this be ‘surprising’? The movie, which stars Jim Caviezel and Mira Sorvino, was not made for Republicans or Democrats. It was made for human beings, because child trafficking is an issue whose moral imperative is obvious to the human heart,” the article states.
In closing, the filmmakers remarked that it is impossible for “Sound of Freedom” to be a production promoting conspiracy theories considering that it was written in 2015 and shot in 2018 “well before anyone involved had ever heard of such theories.”
“In fact, NPR, Rolling Stone and just about every other media outlet that has written about the movie, either positively or negatively, has made it clear in their stories that Sound of Freedom itself doesn’t contain any references to conspiracy theories. We took our inspiration from actual events, many of which were reported by major media outlets at the time,” the directors affirmed.
