Lawyer-turned-filmmaker documents foreclosure crisis

That motorhome you passed on the freeway earlier this month might have been a good place to commiserate about your foreclosure.

If it was the Winnebago driven by John Titus and the crew filming a new documentary, you could have definitely gotten a sympathetic ear about foreclosures and what he calls unsavory banking practices.

Titus, a patent attorney who said he's facing a possible foreclosure battle himself on his home in Chicago, passed through Phoenix May 3 on the road tour.

The trek from Las Vegas to Chicago was designed to publicize what he describes as illegitimate foreclosure proceedings by big banks that lack the documentation to do it. The crew took some detours en route, such as gambling in Las Vegas.

In an interview, Titus said he talked to distressed homeowners in Arizona and other states and plans to include some of their comments in the film. He hopes the movie, tentatively titled "Bailout," will be finished in time for viewing at film festivals early next year.

Titus said he located homeowners in Arizona and other states who were willing to talk about their foreclosure experiences after he placed ads on Craigslist.

"There's a consistency to their stories," Titus said. "The stress inflicted on these people is sad. They're disenfranchised ... and feel like failures."

Because so many banks lost or destroyed the original promissory notes that people signed, the banks lack the paperwork to pursue foreclosures properly, he said. Much of this paperwork apparently got discarded after the banks securitized or sold off packages of mortgages to third-party investors.

Titus still lives in the Chicago home on which he stopped making payments months ago, after requesting a copy of his promissory note that he said the bank couldn't produce.

"There will be a lawsuit when I get back," he quipped.

Meanwhile, he enjoyed the ride from Las Vegas through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, then up into Missouri and Kentucky, before returning to Chicago.

Titus and crew chronicled their trip on the film's iconoclastic and off-color website, www.bailout 2011.com.

by Russ Wiles The Arizona Republic May. 15, 2011 12:00 AM




Lawyer-turned-filmmaker documents foreclosure crisis