Foreclosure: The Movie… (finally!) coming to a screen near you

In new film, neighborhood of foreclosed homes drives man insane

February 26, 2015

You can say a lot of things about the foreclosure crisis, but you can’t say that moving into a neighborhood destroyed by foreclosures could drive a man insane after he falls victim to ancient curses while living a haunted house.

Until now!

Those very events are the plot of a long-delayed movie now available on DVD and various on demand platforms. “Foreclosure,” which first hit HousingWire’s radar in 2010, (yes, 2010! How’s that for a scoop!?!?) tells the story of Bill Landopolous, played by Michael Imperioli, who moves into a house in Queens, New York with his son and father-in-law.

But, as it so often is in the movies, this house is more than just a house.

From the official plot synopsis:

In Foreclosure, Michael Imperioli plays a man whose lucrative business during a long bull market selling his expertise on financial markets in a small town crumbles when the foreclosure crisis hits and he loses his own home. He goes on the road with his father-in-law Raymond and son Steven until they move into a house bequeathed to Raymond by his late brother-in-law Calvin.

The three hope to put their cares behind them and start afresh but ominous premonitions start when a local police officer points out all the numerous foreclosures, bank-owned properties and short sales that have depopulated the once-attractive neighborhood he patrols.

The film’s director, Richard Ledes, said that the movie is “powered by a ghost story that transfigures traumas around race that interact throughout American history.”

Check out the trailer:

Foreclosure – Trailer from Virgil Films on Vimeo.

 

While living at the house, Imperioli’s character is visited by Virgil Paxton, played by Wendell Pierce, who tells him that “horrible events” have taken place in and around the house, specifically at a tree beside the house.

“In my ghost film Foreclosure, the economic crisis of 2008 unleashes a virulent and violent resurrection of racism,” Ledes said. “The racism that haunts the world of the film eventually possesses the protagonist Bill Lindopoulos who decides he must lynch his son to prove he is white.”

Ledes said that his motivation and inspiration for making the film ran deep.

“I am myself Greek-American and was particularly interested in how Southern-Europeans such as Greeks often experienced immigration to the United States in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century as a struggle to be identified as white,” Ledes continued.

“This was especially true during the period when they were being targeted by groups such as the Klu Klux Klan for reputedly diluting the purity of the ‘Nordic race ’with an admixture of the ‘Mediterranean race.’ I wrote the film before the recent paroxysm of police violence against blacks and before the European campaign of austerity that has decimated Greece,” Ledes added.

“Can we see these historical phenomena as involving ghosts? The film has only gained in relevance as these terrible forces have reappeared,” Ledes continued. “The neighborhood in Queens where we shot Foreclosure was replete with foreclosed housing and there is no doubt that those empty houses helped inspire us.”

According to the film’s website, Foreclosure is now available Amazon, Vimeo on Demand, iTunes, Vudu, and Google Play.

The movie’s tagline is “Ghosts don’t move out.” Kind of gives a whole new meaning to zombie foreclosures, amirite?

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