California, USA – Robert Craig Films recently announced they will be giving one million dollars plus 50% of net proceeds of their December 2023-expected film NO ADDRESS and all associated projects to local and national nonprofits serving the homeless population. With the goal of bringing solid solutions for reducing the growing epidemic of homelessness, the company is especially interested in partnering with charitable organizations and houses of worship that are helping unsheltered individuals.
In NO ADDRESS a group of people experiencing homelessness realize they must bond together in order to survive. They each have no physical address, despite having had one at another time in their lives. Having arrived on the streets through unexpected circumstances, their daily life is consumed with the struggle for shelter, food, and safety.
Key players include Hollywood veteran writer/director Julia Verdin (Rough Diamond Productions), Robert Marbut as executive producer, and Robert Craig, Sally Forcier, Julia Verdin, Angela Lujan, and Jennifer Stolo as members of the production team.
Cast members in the full-length feature film include Billy Baldwin, Xander Berkeley, Beverly D’Angelo, Ashanti, Lucas Jad Zumann, Isabella Ferrira, Patricia Velasquez, and Ty Pennington. The story follows a disparate group of individuals who become unsheltered and, eventually, band together and become a family-like unit in order to survive. The film is not yet wrapped, but the multi-award-winning script- combined with the huge amount of field research that has gone into the team’s quest for authenticity- promise a compelling story.
“I think homelessness and people just being displaced is such a huge global issue,” Ashanti shared when asked about her involvement with the film. Ashanti plays “Violet” in the NO ADDRESS film.
“They say (we’re) the greatest country, and they say the most powerful country, and they say the wealthiest country,” William Baldwin says, “well if we were the greatest, the most powerful, and the most wealthy, none of this would exist…”
In tandem with the tent-pole film production, the team is also producing a documentary which portrays the extent of the homeless crisis, AMERICANS WITH NO ADDRESS. Associated projects, including a novelization of the screenplay NO ADDRESS by New York Times Best Selling Author Ken Abraham, an educational curriculum, and an original music soundtrack album featuring work by Grammy Award-winning artists- altogether referred to as The Big 5- will also be sources of income for philanthropic funding. In addition, celebrity actor Xander Berkeley is also a professional painter, and his original portraits of the star talent in the film will be auctioned with 100% of proceeds going to nonprofits caring for the homeless. It is the film project team’s ardent hope to not only help fund projects and agencies working toward the end of homelessness, but also to increase awareness of the homeless crisis in America, create a call to action, and, as they describe it “bring humanity back to the unhoused.”
“My hope in making a film about homelessness, writer/director Verdin said, “is that it will open people’s hearts to remember we have human beings out on our streets with nowhere to go…”
Jennifer Stolo, CEO of Robert Craig Films, recently joined the NO ADDRESS team, adding valuable expertise due to her extensive experience in the non-profit arena, as well her passion for those in need.
“Hearing the heartbreaking stories of how everyday people can fall into homelessness stirs my heart with empathy,” Stolo says. “I’m thrilled to leverage my background to help nonprofits partner with Robert Craig Films through entertainment and educational platforms we are developing, so together we can effect change for those experiencing homelessness.” The entertainment world, it seems, is finally readying to deploy its ability to grab audience attention so as to truly change lives.
“We’ve been submitting our screenplay to NO ADDRESS all over the world,” Robert Craig says, “and already we’re receiving ‘Official Selections’ from several countries. It’s amazing… We’ve already won Best Screenplay at several of the film festivals, and we’ve only just started the film festival circuit..”
“One of the goals that we have with our film,” Craig adds “is that- we’re hoping- when people are watching it they’ll have a kind of a new understanding of what homeless people are really going through and all the challenges that they have…”
“What was happening in San Francisco was what shocked me the most,” Verdin says about the team’s national tour of major US cities in conjunction with production of the documentary. “Within the space of fifteen minutes, we saw three overdoses happening.” San Francisco has been in the news recently for a spate of shop-keep-generated physical assaults upon individuals living outside their shops on sidewalks.
“My hope and prayer, says Major Darren Norton, Divisional Commander of the San Francisco Salvation Army, is that this documentary will not only bring a greater awareness mentally to the stats and the numbers that we see, but would open people’s hearts emotionally to the issues that people are facing on the streets.”
“Truly, the measure of our faith is seen in the way we treat the marginalized of our society,” Max Lucado shares in an interview concerning this project and its goals. Food for thought… As is the reminder that homelessness can happen to anyone- even you and I, together with the encouragement to any and all Christian believers in the gospel of Matthew: “Jesus answered, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” (Matthew 19:21)
Robert Craig Films is a film company located in Placer County, California with a mission to develop, create and produce high-quality, entertaining movies that inspire audiences to engage with greater empathy, compassion, and generosity in the communities in which they live. For more information visit www.RobertCraigFilms.com.
Non-profits looking for more information and to apply for funding arising from “The Big 5” should visit https://www.NoAddressMovie.com.
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