WRITING CULTURE 2012: Film, Food & Beyond

(Film poster imdb.com)

While Obama and Romney debated over who had the right economic formula to get America back to work, we enjoyed Detropia. An award winning 90-minute documentary by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, that lays bare the moving human testimony behind the collapse of the car manufacturing industry in Detroit.

A trio of interesting and articulate personalities provide the bulk of the film’s narrative.  There is Crystal Starr, a local coffee shop worker/ avid video blogger, who pays particular attention to the decaying grandeur of the city’s many abandoned buildings, and George McGregor the pragmatic president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, who continues to preside over a dwindling and disgruntled workforce. Tommy Stephens is the charismatic owner of a local blues bar ‘The Raven Lounge’ which is struggling to survive without the business from the once plentiful car plant workers.

Classical opera under scores the opening scene. A man in an oversized jacket and headphones, walks down a typical urban street playing an imaginary mpc with his fingers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRce1KFsH-g

And so the film begins. Gorgeous nighttime aerial shots capture the emptied city streets where the marginalized few eek out a living from unsavory means.  Emotionally charged commentary from a range of carefully chosen secondary characters, paint a colorful and in depth picture of what life was like in Detroit in the job abundant years, the gritty realism of today, and what it may be like in the future.

The Detroit Opera House has a recurring role throughout. Its existence and survival, symbolizing the idea of hope and renewal for a city struggling with the loss of 50% of it’s manufacturing jobs. It is by no coincidence that Ford is one The Opera House’s key sponsors, and one of the major backers behind this little film that could.

Theater director David Dichera laments, “This is a city going through one of the greatest challenges of the twentieth century”

At times Atkinson’s gritty cinematography is almost Mad Max esque, the snow on the ground detracting little from the familiar lawless sentiment of the young men and the apocalyptic landscape.

But after harsh winters, then comes spring. An artistic young couple have moved in to the city and purchased a loft conversion for $20,000. Like others, they were enticed by the cheap housing options and vast amounts of open space. Could this be the start of the city’s comeback? The UAW slogan says “We built this city” but who will be the builders of Detroit’s future?

Obama’s picture still has pride of place in The Raven Lounge, but for how much longer?  People remember that he bailed out the big three on the verge of bankruptcy. Romney by contrast, is the would-be president who said the car plants should simply just go broke. I hear he had a good debate tonight. Motor City will be watching carefully, the people there know just how much is at stake.

Neither judgmental nor preachy, the subtle genius of this movie is that it lets Detroit speak for itself.