The House That Jack Built is a new motion picture coming your way after a nearly 20-year long journey. The script was written by Joseph Vasquez whose 1991 film HANGIN' WITH THE HOMEBOYS was a rare Latino themed hit in the early days of the American Indie movement. Vasquez' talent and potential were sadly cut short in 1995 when he died of AIDS after an extended struggle with severe Bi-polar disorder--a tragedy that was detailed in feature article in Entertainment Weekly. Joe was the product of a severely broken family. Both parents were drug addicts and his mother, fleeing the drugs and abuse, was cut off from her children when they were young. In the terminal stage of his disease Joe was reunited with his mother who, having reclaimed her own life, took in her son and nursed him until the end.
The last script Joe wrote was THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT: Jack is drug dealer who buys a Bronx building into which he moves his extended family with the hope of re-creating his gauzy vision of good times gone by. When his relatives fail to meet his nostalgic expectations, Jack tries to force them to conform. Instead, he learns a sad lesson about the strength and limitations of family bonds.
One of the people who knew and cared for Joe during his most troubled period was producer Michael Lieber (Awakenings, Joe Gould's Secret, Flash of Genius). With the blessings of Joe's mother, Mike and producer Sam Kitt (Love And Basketball), kept alive the idea of turning the script into a film. Director Henry Barrial was recruited off of his well-received Sundance entry Some Body, and after demonstrating what could be accomplished on an ultra-low budget with his newest film Pig. With the collaboration of producing partner Hitesh Patel, the project was finally pulled together as a digital production shot in the Bronx in the of Summer 2012.
The film World Premiered in the Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2013, completing Joe Vasquez' final artistic vision after nearly 20 years. It has been playing festivals since then and was selected to be the inaugural film of ProjectoNEXT, a new showcase of emerging Latino talent sponsored by HBO. Look for Jack to play in a festival near you in 2014.
