Hollywood tells the story of San Bernardino nonprofit founder Kim Carter – San Bernardino Sun

Before becoming the Kim Carter that those in Southern California know as a philanthropist, lawyer and all-round dynamo, Kim Carter was “Pepcy.”

Pepcy is drugged, Carter said this week, using the present tense to describe past addictions.

Pepcy goes to jail.

Homeless.

Kim, on the other hand, is amazing, Carter said. Transformer.

“Bold in her advocacy,” she said, “and willing to go out and do things contrary to popularity.”

Pepcy and Kim will be featured on the big screen in the near future.

Carter, who founded Time for Change Foundation in 2002, will be played by Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson in “Pepcy & Kim,” a project based on Carter’s life directed by award-winning Taraji P. Henson. Oscar.

“Sometimes I can be too blessed, blessed where I am in a position where I would never have asked God to give me this,” Carter said in a July 7 telephone interview. “Give me a new car, get my credit right, but I’m not asking to be on the big screen. I would never think of asking God for that, and that’s how you know it’s really a blessing, because it has nothing to do with my skills or my ability to make it happen.

“People dream of doing all kinds of things,” Carter added, “and I’m living in someone else’s dream right now.”

A former drug addict living homeless in San Bernardino, Los Angeles and San Francisco counties, Carter has spent most of a dozen years, aged 18 to 30, in and out of jails and jails.

In the past, Carter has credited a stint in a rehab program for changing her life. She became an accountant and founded in 2002 Time for Change Foundation in San Bernardino to help women move from homelessness and incarceration to self-sufficiency.

In addition to helping more than 1,700 women regain their lives, the nonprofit, which Carter expanded to the Bay Area in 2018, has also reunited more than 300 foster children with their families. mothers.

“Everything has changed with Time for Change Foundation,” said Carter, who CNN named Top 10 Hero in 2015. “You have to remind people that no matter how far you’ve gone on the ladder, there’s a comeback. , a way to get in and out. We continue to use our experiences and our platform to shine a light on other women that it is not over, that you can come out of abusive relationships, homelessness, incarceration and build a better life.

“I live beyond my wildest imagination,” Carter added. “I have been so overpaid that I am afraid I will not continue doing this job to help other women.

About three years ago, “Thirteen” writer and director Catherine Hardwicke approached Carter after seeing a CNN clip recounting her trip.

Carter, who in 2017 was pardoned by the government of the day. Jerry Brown’s office and the parole board had previously sparked Hollywood interest, she said, but the once-promising opportunities have always faded as quickly as they appeared.

“Holly-weird,” she now calls Tinseltown accordingly.

Nonetheless, Carter opened up to Hardwicke, sharing some of her life-changing experiences. While Hardwicke has expressed interest in writing a script about Carter’s coming, she still had to find funding and complete other tasks to get the green light for the project.

But she liked her chances.

Then nothing more.

“I’m giving up because Hollywood is Holly-Weird,” Carter said.

It wasn’t until early last month that Hardwicke emailed Carter telling him that his project had been given the green light and would be included in a seven-part anthology by and about women titled “Tell It Like A Woman, ”produced by Los Angeles-based non-profit film production company We Do It Together.

And, Carter learned, someone else would take over as director.

“I met Taraji on Zoom, at a meeting, and I’m here pinching myself,” Carter recalls. “I’m a real fan and probably a groupie as well. Oh my god I was tickled to death. Every time she called me I got dizzy, like a girl meeting a guy she loves for the first time.

In a subsequent Zoom meeting, Henson asked Carter which actress she wanted to portray her.

“Anyone who God wants you to do,” Carter recalls in response.

“Next Zoom, I look up,” Carter said, “and there’s Jennifer Hudson.”

Within two weeks, Carter was in Burbank, on the set of “Pepcy & Kim,” watching two Oscar winners tell their stories about her life.

“We laughed, we cried, we kissed, we healed,” Carter said. “It was an incredible situation. Everything is amazing.

“Pepcy & Kim” was the last segment of the anthology “Tell It Like A Woman” to complete filming.

Other segments feature Eva Longoria, Cara Delevingne, Margherita Buy and Marcia Gay Harden.

A release date has not been announced.

“I’m a hometown girl from San Bernardino who has not only made it big, but made it possible for others to do it too,” Carter said. “The more I help others, the more I am rewarded for it. It’s all behind it all, I’m blessed because I’m a blessing.