Dec 11, 20152 min read

“The House That Jack Built” Re-Release in Time For Netflix Deal

Thanks to a new Netflix distribution deal, The House That Jack Built, written by the late Joseph B. Vasquez, and directed by Henry Barrial will be re-released beginning tonight in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinema, 1625 N Las Palmas Ave, Hollywood, CA 90028 in (323) 306-0676.

In 2013 The House That Jack Built had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival after which it went on to screen at other film festivals, picking up awards for Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay. The journey has lead to the online distribution deal at Netflix, which will be kicked off with a four-wall re-release of the film in four cities.

The House that Jack Built is a powerful story which was written by Vasquez whose 1991 film Hangin’ With the Homeboys (John Leguizamo, Doug E. Doug, Nestor Serrano) was a rare Latino themed hit in the early days of the American Indie movement and led to the industry looking at him at the Latino Spike Lee.

In The House That Jack built, Jack (E.J. Bonilla) a 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.

It has been said that The House That Jack Built is sort of autobiographical and based Vasquez’s life who came from a broken home and writing about his life. 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 AIDS Joe was reunited with his mother who, having reclaimed her own life, took in her son and nursed him until the end.

It has been a 20-year long journey to get The House That Jack Built made into a film. Pushing the project to fruition was Michael Lieber (Awakenings, Joe Gould’s Secret, Flash of Genius) who was a friend to the Vasquez during his most troubled period. 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.