It Was A Wonderful Life

"Compassionate, Intelligent."-L.A. Weekly

In this award-winning festival standout, Academy Award nominee Michele Ohayon (Colors Straight Up) presents a riveting and powerful account of six women who are members of America's growing "hidden homeless" population. Narrated by Jody Foster, and with an original musical score by Melissa Etheridge, his heart-wrenching film expertly captures the hardships and triumphs these courageous women experience in their daily struggle for survival.


Meet Josephine, Reena, Marie, Jeanette, Lou, and Terry. They are intelligent, articulate women who had secure, active, and fulfilling lives until one day everything unraveled. Now homeless after an ugly divorce or loss of a job, these women do not show up in shelters or receive public assistance; they do not sleep in doorways or ask for handouts. Too proud to be counted, they prefer to exist under the radar, sleeping out of their cars or in cheap motels.


Both compelling and consciousness-raising, It Was a Wonderful Life cuts through the stereotypes and clichés to give a human face to this undeniable tragedy. And, with fresh insight into the plight of the homeless, Ohayon shows how these women have managed to make a life for themselves, using only their ingenuity and perseverance to get by.