Daily News of Los Angeles (CA) Michael Cory Davis was living the high life of a movie star abroad when a 13-year-old ex-prostitute knocked his world askew. At the time in 2004, the Sherman Oaks man was shooting a sci-fi flick in Bulgaria, enjoying the celebrity brought on by a role on “The Bold and the Beautiful.’’ The Bulgarians loved the man with the dreadlocks. They hailed him on the street and invited him to parties. As a favor to a charity, Davis went to an orphanage to raise awareness of the children’s plight. “I remember driving to the orphanage,’’ he said. “And I saw 50 kids, without clothes on, playing in a landfill.’’ Thus began Davis’ transformation from made-for-TV movie actor to crusader against human trafficking. He made films now used by the FBI and law enforcement agencies for training and spoke against the modern-day slave trade. Today, “Cargo: Innocence Lost,’’ his documentary about trafficking in America, will screen in Beverly Hills with a panel discussion that includes cops, anti-trafficking advocates and elected officials on how to end the economy of forced servitude. Svetlana’s parents sold her at age 13 to a Dutch pimp, who put her to work servicing 10 to 15 men a day. She managed to escape by leaping out a window, breaking both arms and legs in the process. The Bulgarian children slept three to a bed. If donors brought food, This also hits uncomfortably close to home. While estimates vary on the number of people trafficked through Los Angeles each year, activists agree thousands come in each year through the international airports, the port complex and the Mexican border. “Subliminally, we want it to be foreign, but this is L.A., man. This is our backyard,’’ said City Councilman Tony Cardenas, who helped form the Human Trafficking Task Force in Los Angeles in 2005. It’s not just sex work, either, Davis said. Workers at restaurants, garment manufacturers, nail salons, domestic employees and even construction crews have all turned up in cases taken on by the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking-Los Angeles. “Most of our clients have no sense of their rights in this country, so they don’t trust the American public,’’ said Kay Buck, CAST-LA’s executive director. “The traffickers tell them, `Law enforcement will put you in jail, deport you and we’ll find you again.’’’ Davis had no idea of the scope when he first met Svetlana but was so struck by the tragedy of her life that he wrote a short film based on her experiences. He returned to Bulgaria, learned the language and shot the movie using local actors. It premiered on Bulgarian TV in 2005, then went on to win Best Short Film in the Hollywood Film Festival later that year. Filmmakers weren’t the only ones who took notice. The FBI began using the movie to train its agents how to recognize victims of trafficking. CNN profiled Davis. Human rights organizations began requesting screenings. He spent most of last year making “Cargo,’’ which focuses on those smuggled into the United States. He now uses the 73-minute documentary as part of a ``Human Trafficking 101’’ kit, used by groups from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Eschewing commercial work to make human rights films is not lucrative, but the 30-year-old Davis is content. “Everyone says you have to make it in Hollywood,’’ he said. “Well, I made it in Bulgaria.’’ brent.hopkins@dailynews.
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