Human trafficking is a severe crisis that thrives when communities look away. Public awareness campaigns often struggle to keep up with the hidden methods of traffickers. Exposing this reality requires more than statistics. It takes the emotional power of storytelling to turn basic awareness into concrete action.
B’angel Production and Lovy’s Angels organization, led by filmmaker and activist Yolande Boyom, confront this issue directly. The Road to Freedom began as a film and docu-drama before Boyom later adapted the story into a successful stage production. Now, she is returning to her original vision to complete the film. In this interview, we discuss the project’s journey, her advocacy work, and how producers and nonprofits can join her mission to raise awareness, support survivors, and fight human trafficking.
Q: You successfully produced “The Road to Freedom” as a stage play last year. What inspired you to expand this story into a feature film and documentary format?
Yolande Boyom: The Road to Freedom began as a film project in 2010, when I started writing and researching human trafficking. In 2012, production began in Malaysia and Cameroon. As my research deepened and I connected with victims and survivors, the project evolved from a traditional feature film into a docu-drama, combining the fictional journey of Angel, a yong lady trafficked from Cameroon to Malaysia and eventually the United States, with research and real survivor experiences.
After relocating to the United States, I expanded both the research and filming, making The Road to Freedom an international project spanning Cameroon, Malaysia, and the U.S. Because the production has been largely self-funded, financial challenges delayed its completion. Rather than allow the message to remain unseen, I temporarily paused the film’s completion and adapted the story for the stage. On June 27, 2025, The Road to Freedom came to life as a theatrical production in Hollywood, using live performance to raise awareness and engage audiences directly.
The success of the stage production strengthened my commitment to completing the original film and documentary vision. The film came first, the stage play grew from it, and both are part of the same mission: using truthful storytelling to educate, raise awareness, and amplify the voices of survivors.
Q: Lovy’s Angels is your nonprofit dedicated to fighting human trafficking and child hunger. How does your past work with this organization inform the narratives you create on screen?
Yolande Boyom: My work with Lovy’s Angels deeply influences the stories I create because it allows me to see human trafficking beyond statistics. We support survivors, vulnerable young women, and single mothers emotionally and financially, helping them pursue trade school, career opportunities, or small businesses that can lead to independence. Sometimes financial stability, opportunity, and simply knowing someone believes in you can reduce the vulnerability that traffickers and predators often exploit.
My Master’s in Social Work and nursing license also help me lead Lovy’s Angels with a deeper understanding of trauma, health, vulnerability, and the resources people need to rebuild their lives.
In addition to providing financial and emotional support, we conduct monthly community outreach. I distribute blue flowers, the color of human-trafficking awareness, to people on the streets and in our communities. Each flower becomes an opportunity to start a meaningful conversation about trafficking, prevention, and warning signs. With a goal of 500 flowers per major outreach, that can mean 500 meaningful conversations and 500 more people made aware.
These experiences shape my filmmaking because they remind me that behind every statistic is a human being who needs opportunity, dignity, love, and hope. That is the truth I want my stories to carry.
Q: Transitioning a live play into a film requires a different approach to storytelling. What unique challenges have you faced while finishing “The Road to Freedom” film?
Yolande Boyom: I would actually describe the journey in reverse, The Road to Freedom began as a film, and the stage play was later adapted from it. One of my biggest challenges has been completing such an ambitious, largely self-funded international production filmed across Cameroon, Malaysia, and the United States.
Because the project evolved into a docu-drama, the challenge is not only technical or financial; it is also about responsibility. I am combining Angel’s dramatic journey with real survivor experiences, so I have to balance powerful storytelling with truth, sensitivity, and respect for the people whose realities inspired the project.
The stage production gave me something invaluable: the opportunity to witness firsthand how the story moved people, opened conversations, and changed the way some audience members viewed human trafficking. My challenge now is to capture that same emotional connection on screen and take it far beyond one theater.
I don’t want audiences to simply watch The Road to Freedom and walk away. I want them to remember the faces behind the statistics, recognize the signs of trafficking, start conversations, and understand that awareness can lead to action. If this film helps even one person recognize someone in danger or gives one survivor the courage to believe that freedom is possible, then every year, every obstacle, and every sacrifice it took to complete this journey will have been worth it.
Q: You are currently finalizing these film projects. How can producers and production companies step in to support the completion and distribution of this work?
Yolande Boyom: The Road to Freedom is approximately 70% filmed, across Cameroon, Malaysia, and the United States. After carrying this project for so many years, often through personal sacrifice and self-funding, I am now looking for producers and production companies who can help me bring it across the finish line through financing, remaining production, post-production, sound, editing, distribution, festival strategy, and marketing.
I have always been a big admirer of Angel Studios because I connect deeply with their approach to purpose-driven storytelling. I often joke that maybe working with them is destiny: my lead character is named Angel, my mother’s name is Angel, and I even have Angel tattooed on my back, so at this point, I may be running out of signs! (Laughs.) Of course, that is a joke, but with faith and prayer, perhaps one day it could become reality.
More importantly, I am open to any producer, investor, or production company that genuinely believes in this mission. Seventy percent of the film may already be captured, but the most important part remains: getting these stories into the world. I have carried The Road to Freedom as far as I could with the resources I had. I am now looking for partners who can help carry it the rest of the way, not simply to finish a film, but to give survivor voices a larger platform and turn storytelling into awareness, prevention, hope, and ultimately, freedom.
Q: Beyond the film industry, what specific partnerships are you seeking from non-profit organizations to maximize the impact of your upcoming releases?
Yolande Boyom: I am looking for nonprofits that see The Road to Freedom as more than a film as a tool for education, prevention, and action. I welcome partnerships with anti-trafficking organizations, survivor-support programs, shelters, healthcare and social-service groups, faith-based organizations, and nonprofits serving vulnerable women and children.
My vision includes community screenings with survivor voices, educational panels, prevention resources, warning signs, and direct connections to services. Through Lovy’s Angels, I have learned that awareness is important, but it becomes truly powerful when people are given a way to act.
There is also an immediate partnership opportunity for this upcoming January, during Human Trafficking Awareness Month, as I work to bring The Road to Freedom back to the stage for a special awareness production. Our first production was a tremendous success in its impact and audience response, but because I largely self-funded it, it also left me with a significant financial deficit. I am proud of what we accomplished, but this time, I don’t want to carry the mission alone.
My goal is to make the upcoming production bigger than a play, an awareness experience combining live theater, survivor voices, education, prevention, and community resources. I am seeking nonprofits, sponsors, production companies, faith-based and community organizations, and what I lovingly call “destiny helpers” who can contribute through funding, resources, services, promotion, outreach, or participation.
My call is simple: partner with us. A film can open someone’s eyes, but partnership can give them somewhere to turn once their eyes are open. Together, we can move beyond awareness into action and help move someone from vulnerability toward freedom.
The Road to Freedom began as a film project, with the stage production emerging years later as an extension of Boyom’s original vision and advocacy mission. Rather than transitioning from stage to screen, Boyom brought the story from film to live theater as another powerful way to reach audiences while continuing to work toward the film’s completion. This evolution demonstrates the need for dynamic advocacy and shows that art can do more than entertain, it can educate, create meaningful conversations, mobilize resources, and inspire action. Her ongoing work through Lovy’s Angels organization and B. Angels Production further demonstrates how personal conviction can grow into tangible community impact.
As human trafficking and exploitation continue to challenge human rights globally, connecting artistic storytelling with direct advocacy remains essential. Completing and expanding The Road to Freedom through film will allow a mission that has already reached audiences on stage to travel far beyond the walls of a theater and reach communities around the world. By bringing together filmmakers, producers, nonprofit organizations, advocates, and survivor-support networks, a story can become more than something people watch; it can become a bridge from awareness to action, from vulnerability to support, and ultimately, from exploitation toward freedom.
To learn more, visit https://www.bangelproduction.com