Will Little Pink House Become the Erin Brockovich of the Eminent-Domain Abuse Movement?

Former Reason TV
producer Ted Balaker and his wife Courtney Balaker are producing a
movie based on the travails of Suzette Kelo, whose fight against
eminent domain abuse resulted in the landmark case Kelo v.
City of New London. The film, titled Little Pink
House, is slated for a 2015 release. 

Kelo lost her battle against the city seizing property and
turning it over to private developers but the court case actually
jumpstarted pushback against eminent-domain abuse around the
country. In
USA Today, the Balakers talk about what they hope to
accomplish with their movie about Kelo:

The powerful bullying the powerless — that’s the opposite of
inclusion. And how about diversity? Eminent domain abuse typically
strikes poor
and minority communities. Not at all compassionate, but it
encapsulates the Barclays Center’s dodgy backstory, in which
officials flattened a neighborhood that was more diverse than
powerful to erect a massive complex that has enriched developers
and the NBA franchise that calls the facility home.

How to tame the ugly spirit of eminent domain abuse and
cronyism? We suggest turning to a force mightier than politics:
culture. We are producing a feature film based on Kelo’s historic
saga, and we hope to achieve some of the impact garnered
by Erin Brockovich,
another underdog film about a real-life working-class woman.

Erin Brockovich showed how culture can elevate
otherwise obscure issues to drive reform. Cultural depictions
played an important role in the recent shift in public support for
same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization, and Kelo’s courageous
struggle could likewise help viewers understand the human cost of
eminent domain abuse.

Read the whole column.

The production is being made in conjunction with the Institute for Justice, the libertarian
public-interest law firm that represented Kelo.

For more on the case and the movie, check out the
Facebook page for Little Pink House.

In 2000, Walter Olson picked apart all the
errors and misrepresentations in the movie Erin
Brockovich. Having worked with the Balakers, I’m confident
Little Pink House will actually be an honest retelling of the
tale.