Wishing I were in Park City, Utah, for the Sundance premiere of "Detropia," directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady ("Jesus Camp," "The Boys of Baraka")'s look at the fall of the Motor City. The women say that they started out making a film about Detroit, but came to realize it was really a microcosm of what was happening throughout the United States. I can't tell from the trailer if it tackles the horrifying -- and arguably unconstitutional -- "emergency manager" law now in effect, whereby citizens no longer have a say in who runs their cities. What started in Benton Harbor has begun to spread like an autocratic wildfire, and now Detroit -- the state's largest city -- is now on the brink of being "taken over" by the state. Only Rachel Maddow seems to be taking this situation seriously, reporting that "half the state's African-American population is on the verge of having no meaningful local democracy. Michigan's expanded emergency manager law gives the state the power to install an overseer for failing towns and school districts. As we've seen in Benton Harbor and Flint, that person can then strip all power from elected officials."
One subject interviewed put it best when he said this: "Capitalism is a great system, I love it. But it exploits the weak. When you see your neighbor going down, you have to think about yourself. And if you don't go over there and put that fire out -- help your neighbor put that fire out -- that fire is coming for you."
Details and show times HERE.
(Please contact me if you've already seen it.)
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