"We are the United States and we haven't been united for awhile," says Bobby Hull, a U.S. veteran who is on the brink of losing his home. And he is far from alone: according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the home foreclosure rate over the last thirty years has quadrupled. It's more evident than ever that the banks - and the shoddy regulations that pretend to rein them - in are no longer working in the interest of the people.
But Occupy Our Homes is, and they are working in Minneapolis and elsewhere to stem the tide of wrongful foreclosures and evictions. Filmmaker Peter Leeman made these short documentaries to highlight the people behind the docket numbers.
"These films attempt to show how personal and emotional the foreclosure process can be," Leeman said. In their film series "Facing Foreclosure," Leeman and Kyle Kehrwald paint portraits of Americans who have no choice but to fight for their way of life.
In addition to Hull, a cornerstone in his community who nevertheless cannot afford the rising cost of his mortgage, we meet Monique White, a laid-off nonprofit worker from North Minneapolis who gets put through the mortgage rigamorole by U.S. Bank. If her grandson could no longer come over and play in her yard, "that would just devastate me," she says.
Monique's Story: Facing Foreclosure from Peter Leeman on Vimeo.
Then there's Sara, a divorced single mother who must fight in court to save her house. "My story is so typical," she says matter-of-factly, "that it can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time - unless we start fighting back together.
"I'm not ashamed, I'm not embarrassed, I'm not the moral hazard," she adds. "We all have a voice, and we all have the power to speak up. And if we have the power to speak up, change will come."
Sara's Story: Facing Foreclosure (Intro) from Peter Leeman on Vimeo.
After John, an Air Force veteran, nearly drowned in bureaucracy in the aftermath of his mortgage modification with U.S. Bank, he reached out to Occupy. "I just think that these banks need to sit down and put a halt to wherever people are in the foreclosure mess and give these people a chance."
John's Story : Facing Foreclosure from Peter Leeman on Vimeo.
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