MAYA, written, directed by Julia Verdin, is presented by the non-profit social impact organization Artists for Change. The release coincides with Human Trafficking Awareness Month. In the film, teenager Maya (Isabella Feliciana) is raised in a household stricken by her father’s abandonment and her mother’s (Patricia Velasquez) ensuing alcoholism. She seeks an escape from her mother’s abusive boyfriend by confiding in a man she meets online, who convinces her to run away. Unbeknownst to Maya, she has been lured into a child trafficking scheme where her confidant quickly becomes her pimp, along with an older captive Kayla (Rumer Willis). While Maya fights to understand the difference between love and manipulation, her mother must fight through her addiction to bring her daughter home. MAYA will be released in several U.S. theatrical markets on January 26, 2024—including Minneapolis, Detroit, Dallas, Miami, Los Angeles, and San Antonio so far. MAYA will be available to rent/own on the same date (January 26, 2024) on all digital HD internet, cable, and satellite platforms in North America. The film will also have a community release program for churches, community groups, and nonprofits. MAYA will be available to own on DVD on March 12, 2024.




Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many people shifted online, including human traffickers. Social media sites have allowed traffickers a faster and more effective way to recruit young victims. Online recruitment and grooming increased as children spent more time online for virtual learning, often with little parental supervision. This led to dramatic increases in online commercial sexual exploitation and sex trafficking, including online sexual exploitation of children, and demand for and distribution of child sexual exploitation material.
Maya’s story is a call to action for the audience to mobilize against the epidemic of sex trafficking and online predators and support the work of organizations already involved in the fight. It also highlights the growing problem of domestic abuse. Verdin says, “I was inspired to write MAYA after hearing many stories from survivors of trafficking about the Stockholm syndrome-type relationships they had with their traffickers. They had been manipulated into believing that their trafficker was the only person who was trustworthy and truly cared for them. Often the survivors had also come from situations where there was domestic abuse happening in the home too. To represent these realities of human trafficking in the most authentic way possible, I made sure to meet with anti-trafficking groups, domestic violence groups and trafficking task force detectives, in addition to survivors. My hope is that MAYA will help educate teenagers and parents as to what trafficking looks like—when people join their voices on an issue, change is possible!” It’s also a story about the cycle of abuse that can happen and the need to break it and courage and healing.