Los Angeles, CA — Renowned motivational speaker and philanthropist Tony Robbins has joined forces with filmmaker Mo Chamani to address one of the most urgent and underreported crises in the United States: child trafficking. Their new film, City of Dreams, brings harrowing yet essential attention to the brutal realities of modern-day slavery happening right within U.S. borders.
The film tells the story of Jesús, a young boy from Mexico who crosses the border with dreams of becoming a soccer star, only to be ensnared in a world of forced labor in a Los Angeles sweatshop. While City of Dreams is a fictional narrative, the story reflects the grim reality for thousands of children who are trafficked into the United States each year.
Robbins, who has been deeply involved in anti-trafficking efforts for over eight years, shared the personal toll of working on this issue. “My wife and I have been involved in freeing over 50,000 children. We’ve gone undercover, seen the ugliest things you can imagine happening to children, but the beauty is in their freedom,” he said in a recent interview.
The statistics behind the story are staggering. Human trafficking has become one of the world’s fastest-growing criminal enterprises, generating over $150 billion annually. The U.S. Department of Justice ranks trafficking as one of the most severe threats to children today, with an alarming number of cases linked directly to the nation’s open borders and the exploitation of migrant populations.
Chamani, whose inspiration for the film stems from a personal connection to the issue—his father worked in sweatshop-like conditions as a child—was motivated by the lack of media coverage on trafficking in the United States. “I couldn’t believe this was happening here, in America, on such a scale,” he remarked, adding that the mainstream media has largely failed to report on these stories.
While Robbins and Chamani are hopeful that City of Dreams will ignite widespread action against trafficking, they are also realistic about the challenges they face. Robbins noted that previous films addressing this issue, like Sound of Freedom, encountered censorship and resistance from major platforms. There are already reports that social media posts about City of Dreams have been shadowbanned on Instagram and TikTok, a concerning sign that powerful interests may be working to suppress the film’s message.
Despite these challenges, Robbins and Chamani are determined to continue their fight. “This film is a call to action,” Robbins emphasized. “It’s about waking people up to what’s really happening. We can’t allow child slavery and trafficking to go on in our country.”
City of Dreams is set to open in theaters nationwide, offering audiences not just a gripping cinematic experience but also a stark reminder of the work that remains to be done to protect the most vulnerable among us.