‘The House Next Door’ Opens on VOD, Digital July 16

Documentary Focused on Effects of America’s Housing Foreclosure Crisis Sets Digital Debut for North American VOD Platforms and DVD on July 16, 2024 Freestyle Digital Media

, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, has acquired North American VOD rights to the housing foreclosure-themed documentary THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR, which will be available to rent/own on all U.S. digital HD internet, cable, and satellite platforms, as well as on DVD, starting on July 16, 2024.

THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR documents the effects of the foreclosure crisis on Northeast Ohio and the neighborhoods of Slavic Village and East Cleveland – ground zero for this man-made disaster. There were many culpable parties including mortgage brokers, uninformed buyers, unscrupulous sellers who jacked up the price of the property, willfully blind appraisers who went along with inflated home prices, and mortgage bankers out to make mad money, and of course, Wall Street. At best these people simply ignored the warning signs in favor of a quick buck, at worst this was a giant conspiracy of complicity. And even though there were multiple guilty parties nobody ever went to jail except for a few small-time property brokers in places like Cleveland. This film examines: the roots of this crisis; why it impacted Cleveland so badly; what the city had to do to clean up the mess; and most importantly, could this nightmare ever happen again?

Written, directed, and produced by John P. Vourlis. THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR was produced and edited by Graham Emerson Beck. THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR was also produced by Evan W. Prunty. Individuals featured in THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR include Barbara Anderson, Bill Behrens, Tony Brancatelli, Ron Byrd, Marc Dann, Frank Ford, Gus Frangos, Norman Lange, Ivan Lee, Blaine Murphy, Tim Petti, James Rokakis, Marc Stefanski, and Charles Stimac.

“I wanted to create a film that was informative, entertaining, and thought provoking; a film that would open people’s eyes to the devastation that the foreclosure crisis brought to the city I love and call home, and to the incredible resilience the city showed in the face of an economic catastrophe that nearly destroyed it,” said filmmaker John Vourlis. More important, I wanted to tell this story through the eyes of the people at ground zero, the people who were most directly affected by the tidal wave of foreclosures that nearly overwhelmed everyone involved. It’s their stories that compelled me to examine a key historical event in American history from a very personal perspective, and try to bring it home on a visceral, deeply personal level.”