Little Pink House: She Fought For Her Home. And Yours.

Susette Kelo, a registered nurse, purchased her dream home on East Street in Fort Trumbull in July 1997. From her dining room window on a clear day she can see Montauk Point at the tip of Long Island.
When Susette first purchased the cute little Victorian, it was so overgrown with weeds that she literally needed a hatchet to reach the front door. But soon thereafter, the house was lovingly restored into a little pink “show home” for herself and her husband Tim. They were happy there until a notice was posted on their door the day before Thanksgiving in 2000 by the New London Development Corporation. It informed Susette that she and Tim would have to leave their home by March 2001 or the police would forcibly remove them and their belongings.
Less than two years later, Tim drove his truck into a concrete embankment while driving home from work and was nearly killed. Tim relearned to walk and to talk, but as a result of the accident, her husband is now like a child whom Susette must care for as she works two nursing jobs.
Fortunately, her little pink cottage—the home that was the subject of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case and a national symbol of the fight against eminent domain abuse—was relocated and spared from the wrecking ball.

Courtney Moorehead Balaker is an award-winning filmmaker, theatre director, and co-founder of Korchula Productions.
Courtney wrote, directed, and produced Little Pink House, an award-winning Korchula Productions feature film about Susette Kelo’s historic fight to save her home and neighborhood. The film stars two-time Academy Award nominee Catherine Keener (Get Out, Being John Malkovich, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and Emmy nominee Jeanne Tripplehorn (Big Love, The Firm, Grey Gardens).
The film has been lauded by the likes of The Hollywood Reporter (“The bottom line—it hits a nerve”) and Deadline Hollywood (“Keener nails the combination of anger, grace, and attitude that made Kelo a nationally known crusader”). It has won a variety of awards including the HBO Audience Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival and the Vail Film Festival Audience Award. Courtney’s script was selected as a finalist for the Athena List, which recognizes the best screenplays with strong female protagonists.

John Kramer is the Vice President for Communications at the Institute for Justice. Since joining the Institute for Justice in 1992, Kramer’s media relations work—coupled with IJ’s litigation—has protected the individual rights of Americans nationwide. He helped property owners successfully challenge eminent domain for private gain, secured the rights of entrepreneurs who fought against government-enforced monopolies, helped extend First Amendment protections to the Internet, and directed the successful PR effort to strike down a federal law that made it a felony to compensate bone marrow donors.
Kramer was portrayed in the Hollywood movie Little Pink House. He was paid a fifth of bourbon for his life rights for the movie, the same amount paid to John Wayne when he appeared on the television show The Beverly Hillbillies.
Kramer graduated from New Mexico State University and was named a distinguished alumnus in 2014.