A new Goldman State Podcast drops every Friday!

“No Address” is about homelessness and the families we choose

By Ed Goldman

In a life and career filled with championing worthy causes, Jennifer Stolo has now taken on one of the neediest, most under-served industries in the world: independent film-making.

Stolo is the CEO and a producer at Robert Craig Productions. The company’s dramatic big-screen debut comes on February 28th with the multi-cities release of “No Address”, a film with a social message that may make cinema enthusiasts remember the heyday of Warner Brothers Studio, which released dozens of entertaining but thought-provoking “message” movies in the 1930s-1950s.

These included 1932’s “I Am A Fugitive From a Chain Gang,” 1937’s “Black Legion” and the most romantic pro-American adventure ever, “Casablanca,” which was released while World War II raged in 1942 and anticipated the Allied victory. 

In “No Address,” William Baldwin, Beverly D’Angelo and Ashanti star as a group of individuals who unexpectedly fall into homelessness. As the film’s blurb describes it, “They bond together as an unconventional family, struggling to survive on the streets while warding off a harassing gang, vigilantes, an unforgiving community, and local authorities.”

The movie may be faith-infused,” says Stolo, “but not entirely faith-based. There’s no doubt about the fact that Robert, and now I, want to make films that inspire.”

Stolo says she hopes the film, as well as a Craig-made documentary already available on-line (his website is robertcraigfilms.com) , “will help all of us better engage with people experiencing homelessness.” You no doubt caught that brand shift. “Homeless people” are now referred to as “people experiencing homelessness.” While many of us may despise politically correct language adjustments—switching from “him” or “her” to “their” is especially irritating in usage because it makes it unclear if you’re talking about one person or a crowd—I think this one makes sense. It attempts to lessen the permanent labeling that can make people think their current plight is going to be a lifetime condition. (Alternatively, people who have the disease of alcoholism are told that they’ll always be alcoholics, even if they recover and maintain their sobriety for decades. Not fair, o Lords of Lexcicon.)

This is the third time I’ve interviewed Stolo, who’s 53. The first time was to talk about the remarkable success of Make-A-Wish, which grants more than 400 wishes of ailing children per year. During her watch, she says the organization’s revenue grew from $2 million to $10 million dollars annually. 

The second time was when I heard from a mutual friend that Stolo had contracted breast cancer and was fighting it tooth, nail and spirit. “Cancer messed with the wrong lady,” she told me at the time. For that interview, she also told me her sister Kelly said Stolo was meant to be more than a “cancer survivor or cancer warrior. She said, ‘Jen, you’re a cancer ass-kicker.'” 

Now, four years later, Stolo moves as kinetically and exudes as much energy as she did that first time I sat down with her. Trim and blessed with an ear-to-ear smile, she looks as though she might have chosen the wrong side of the camera to be on.

“Well, I do have to cameos in ‘No Address,'” she says, with equal parts slyness and shyness. “But they’re both voiceovers. One is as the voice of an EMT worker. The other is the voice on a store’s public address system directing shoppers to the aisle where they’ll find Gutterglove.”