Over the weekend, Michael and I went to IFC to see "Detropia," Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's bleak documentary about the downfall of the Motor City. You probably don't have to be a native to notice there isn't much new information revealed here -- Detroit hasn't "been the same" since the riots that began two weeks after I was born, and its demise has been well-chronicled ever since.
But what the filmmakers do argue rather successfully through interviews with people and officials on the ground is that what has been happening in Detroit is slowly beginning to happen throughout the country, as a result of the collapse of the U.S. manufacturing base, with jobs being shipped out of the country and unions neutered. I wasn't blown away by "Detropia." But the faces it put on one of the saddest stories in the history of urban life in America will touch you deeply, even if no one seems to be offering even the smallest solution for how to change things.
But what the filmmakers do argue rather successfully through interviews with people and officials on the ground is that what has been happening in Detroit is slowly beginning to happen throughout the country, as a result of the collapse of the U.S. manufacturing base, with jobs being shipped out of the country and unions neutered. I wasn't blown away by "Detropia." But the faces it put on one of the saddest stories in the history of urban life in America will touch you deeply, even if no one seems to be offering even the smallest solution for how to change things.
