HOUGHTON — An open invite is extended to the public to watch a riveting new film about human trafficking titled “Ring of Silence.”

The event will take place at Niiwin Akeea Gymnasium on the campus of the Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa College Campus on Thursday, with a reception beginning at 5 p.m.

 “Ring of Silence” is based on real events that happened to teens in a Michigan high school. The film’s director, Nicole Bowers Wallace, said that “it’s a film that everybody needs to see.”

This film is rated for PG-13 audiences so they can understand that the perpetrators look like attractive young men and women in their school, like the kid on Instagram or Snapchat, or even like the guy next door. A panel of local experts will be available for Q&A immediately after the film.

This event is free and open to the public.

The human trafficking epidemic has victimized over 8,000 people in Michigan in the last decade alone. The victims are our daughters and sons, our students, our neighbors. In honor of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Awareness Month, The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community agencies in partnership with the Upper Peninsula Human Trafficking Task Force says it is time we speak up louder than silence.

It’s being co-hosted and sponsored by the Upper Peninsula Human Trafficking Task Force and the KBIC Niimigimiwang Transitional Home.