WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Despite the many advances in technology and human rights, being kidnapped and forced into slavery in today’s world is not that much more complicated than it was 200 years ago. “Ghost Fleet” follows a Thailand-based NGO that tracks down Southeast Asian men who are made slaves on fishing vessels and helps reunite them with their families. The relentless, brave work of the NGO staff is showcased along with the unbearable misery which the kidnapped men have to live through.

WHO MADE IT: Shannon Service is a reporter who first broke out the story on Thai fishing slavery in 2012, together with Becky Palmstrom. She joined forces with cinematographer Jeffrey Waldron, who is known for his work on various TV shows, including “Dear White People” and “Brockmire,” to make a documentary on the subject. The superheroes at the center of the narrative are LPN foundation, a network of activists that battle contemporary slavery out of Thailand. Patima Tungpuchayakul and her husband Sompong Srakaew are the co-founders. Tungpuchayakul makes trips to retrieve the slaves, and Srakaew takes care of policy, advisory, and their little son. Meanwhile, staff member Tun Lin, who covers translations to 4 languages and migration aid, is a former slave himself. Rescued by Patima in 2014 after ten years of forced labor in Somali, the Indonesian man joined LPN himself to help others escape their floating prisons. In addition to rescuing workers, LPN also works on their reintegration into society by providing educational resources, shelters, and help with the mitigation of compensation from the governments.

WHY DO WE CARE: There are many iterations in which slavery exists today. It’s crucial to know how the systems of forced labor work and the way middle-class consumers are complicit in them. “Ghost Fleet” uses reenactments and testaments of former slaves to explore the horrific conditions in which fishing slaves are held. Some receive corporal punishment; others lose limbs. Survivors testify to their friends dying as a result of dangerous labor conditions, or at the hands of their slavers. But the most striking, perhaps, is the ease with which someone in South Asia can be abducted. The film begins with a recollection of a man who ended up enslaved on a boat for five years after a rowdy night in the city. Something that sounds like an urban legend to someone privileged is, in fact, the chilling truth. “Ghost Fleet” pulls no punches to establish the maddening stakes in the seafood game. Slavery is rampant and fed by the big bucks of profits, and very few people care to do something to help the slaves.