WRITING CULTURE 2012: Film, Food & Beyond

     Directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing have always been known for shining a light on unknown worlds. They were nominated for an academy award for best documentary feature for their film Jesus Campwhich took a candid look at Pentecostal children in America. They also directed a documentary entitled 12^th and Delaware which won a Peadbody award in 2011 and is about Americas raging abortion battle. It’s safe to say that they make their bread and butter by opening people’s eyes. Detropia is definitely an eye opener. This documentary takes place in Detroit which is a city seemingly on the brink of disappearing. In the beginning of the movie an astonishing fact flashes across that lets the viewers know that 10 years ago Detroit had 1.8 million residents and today there are only 725,000. From that point on you want to find out why.

     The film does a good job of explaining how the city relied on the auto industry for its survival and now that the auto industry has abandoned them Detroit is doing its best to survive. I really tried my best to find other documentaries to compare this to but I truly feel that it is one of a kind. I think the closest I can compare it to would be The Corporation directed by Jennifer Abbot and Mark Achbar which looks at the concept of the corporation throughout recent history up until present day. It shows how corporations became so influential to society and how they’re cost cutting doesn’t affect them but the people in the towns where they are based.

     Even though it was a documentary, Detropia was filled with characters I will never forget. From the foul mouthed but artistic Crystall Starr who was a video blogger that recorded old buildings in Detroit that have been abandoned to Tommy Stephens, the very energetic and always inquisitive owner of the Ravens lounge which is a blues club located a few blocks from a GM plant that was closed. A memorable Scene with Mr. Stephens (and believe me it was hard to choose from) would have to be when he and his wife were at an auto show and he demanded to know how the Ford Volt would compete with a Chinese version that cost half the price. The look of shock on his face when the Ford rep had no idea about its competition was priceless. Another character that stands out is the President of the United Autoworkers local 22 George McGregor. I don’t know what stood out more, the fact he still wore a Jerri curl this day and age or the scene where he broke the news to his members on how AMERICAN AXLE threatened to move operations to Mexico unless the autoworkers took severe pay cuts.  To see an actual union meeting in which members had to wrestle with the choice of taking a pay cut and not being able to properly provide for their families or lose their jobs and not be able to provide for their families at all is something that has you thinking “what would I choose?”.

     There is a scene with Mayor Bing who comes up with the idea to move the residents from one side of Detroit that is sparsely populated to another part of Detroit that has a lot more residents. The plan is to turn the vacant land into a large urban farm so that better use could be made of the 47 square miles of unused land. One resident asked “so you want to grow tomatoes in the hood?” This shows that the residents truly did not understand how the plan would benefit them, because a garden did not seem to patch up the hole of despair that they were falling through. During a press conference the Mayor was asked if he would give any tax incentives or money to those that had to move and he simply said “we are broke; we don’t have any money to give anyone”.

     Detropia is a sad look at what can happen throughout America if a city is too dependent on a corporation for its livelihood. In the end a corporation is a business and is concerned with only one thing and that is to make a profit. With so many corporations wielding powerful influence in many U.S cities, it begs the question “Will your city be next?” Towards the end of the film, Tommy Stephens left us with some chilling words “if we don’t stop this epidemic then it will spread and it will be coming to your city real soon”. Those words still haunt me.

     One thing I could have used more of in the film was to explore the beauty that is Detroit so we, the audience can find out why Detroit should be saved and what makes it so special besides the fact it was where millions of cars were made. Other than that Detropia was an excellent documentary and I urge everyone to go see it. I also urge you to write to your local representatives and urge them to go see it and then ask them what do they plan to do to prevent this from happening to your town.