BY CK REEDER
Actress Catherine Keener (left) plays propery rights activist Susette Kelo in Little Pink House.
Little Pink House Photo courtesy Korchula Productions
This drama about regular people fighting against political and corporate interests that want to take their property will be all too familiar to landowners.
A
lot of Western films involve expropriation and property rights, often culminating in gunfights against crooked sheriffs and land surveyors. A quiet drama about these issues might be a tough sell. But Little Pink House is a strong, simple film about the underappreciated issue of expropriation (or “eminent domain” as they call it in the United States). It’s not a legal thriller with slick lawyers facing off. It’s a
biographical drama about regular people fighting against political and corporate interests that want to take their property. This film dramatizes the story behind the significant Kelo v. City of New London case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. The decision in this case permitted a Connecticut city (New London) to condemn private property so that it could be transferred to another private party for “economic redevelopment.”
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PIPEL INE OBSERV ER
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