It started for me many years ago, when I was a little girl.  Growing up in Los Angeles, riding around in the back of my parents’ car, I always noticed homeless people living on the streets.  I didn’t know why they were out there – cold, hungry and alone — and I was on the other side: with food to eat, a bed to sleep in, protected by the love of my parents.  Despite our immediate differences I felt a strong connection to these people whom I had never met.

As I got older the connection I had felt since childhood intensified.  When I was 23 years old, I took out a loan and bought a video camera.  I spent every weekend on the streets, doing interviews with any homeless person who would talk to me.

Four years later my experiences became my first feature film, a personal documentary called WITHOUT A HOME.

Over time I found that the dozens of interviews I was doing had crystallized into meaningful relationships with a handful of homeless people throughout my city.  As I got to know these people more intimately they began asking me for help and I did whatever I could do to help them.  Before I knew it all of my subjects were asking me for help.

As I was confronted with the choice to help them, I began to understand the real problems they were facing.  I found myself consumed, working within this secret world that few of my friends or family really even knew much about.  I was in over my head but it felt like the only thing I was supposed to be doing.

I had an opportunity to help these people simply because I was a functioning and relatively privileged member of society.  Because I cared enough to actively seek the help they were looking for and affect change, I was able to make a difference in their lives and in doing so I changed my own life.   The experiences I had throughout filming this movie have touched me in ways for which I am eternally humbled and grateful.

As the release of my film finally approaches I’m overjoyed to share this movie with the rest of the world.

Rachel