Red-carpet screening for homeless crisis documentary held at Roseville Galleria
ROSEVILLE — A red-carpet film screening is taking place at the Roseville Galleria with a Hollywood celebrity in attendance.
Film producer Jennifer Stolo is among those attending a red-carpet screening of a new full-length documentary about the nation's homeless crisis called "Americans With No Address."
"We find this could happen to anyone, and that's really the theme of our project," said Stolo, CEO of Robert Craig Films.
The documentary takes a look at issues surrounding homelessness through discussions with politicians, outreach workers, and interviews with people who spend each night living on the streets.
"We obviously saw the bleak realities of homelessness, but we also saw the hopeful side," Stolo said. "There are diamonds in the rough."
Keith Diederich, the CEO of The Gathering Inn, is one of the homeless service providers featured in the film.
"The Gathering Inn's hope when they see the documentary is to have a greater awareness and empathy and compassion and look at what's going on out there," Diederich said.
The documentary originally started as research for a fictional film called "No Address" produced by local moviemaker Robert Craig.
That movie shot some scenes on the streets of Sacramento last year and is now in post-production. It stars Billy Baldwin, who narrates this documentary and attended the Roseville screening. Baldwin is the second-youngest of the four Baldwin brothers—Alec, Daniel and Stephen.
"We wound up doing this national tour in twenty states, and we had several hundred interviews and we realized we have all this amazing footage and they told a great story," Baldwin said.
He said the film shows what needs to change to help get people off the streets.
"On some of these policies, there has to be a little bit of a course correction because we've really studied this and we know where it's working and why," Baldwin said.
Producers say they hope to get more people involved with solving this complex issue.
"This is not just a film," Stolo said. "I hope this is a movement."
The producers are looking to submit the documentary to several film festivals across the country, and they're hoping to release the fictional film by the end of the year.