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Carissa

Release Year: 2008

Duration: 23 min

Availability: Worldwide

Related: History, Life & Culture, Women's Issues

Last year, Carissa Phelps graduated with both a law degree and an MBA from UCLA. But when she was 12, she was homeless and forced into prostitution in Fresno. This documentary short takes us on Carissa’s inspirational journey.

“Carissa” has won jury prizes at several film festivals and was featured in USA Today and on Good Morning America. The film is also Executive Produced by Davis Guggenheim, the Academy Award-winning director of “An Inconvenient Truth” and Jamie McCourt, Owner and President of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and sponsored by Virgin Mobile and the Los Angeles Dodgers Dream Foundation.



This film is about a young woman who more or less ended up living in the streets when she was twelve years old. She endured many aspects of the street life, was arrested after a couple years and put into a program. There a few wonderful people offered her help and she accepted that help. From there on she gained confidence in herself and continued to expand on it. She now tries to help others that need help and she's a fantastically honest person that as far as I can see made her way off the streets and a role model for others to follow.

What touched me most is the fact that I also did my time on the streets and know personally how hard it is to escape from that life. Not many do, the few that did it can at least try to help a little. There is no worse feeling than losing your self to nothingness.

Thank You Carissa (((((((((((((((((Hugs))))))))))))))))

Dave...