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.

This is not a  Brooklyn neighborhood undergoing gentrification.

Detropia. The name says it all, a play on dystopia, it was obvious from the first minute this would not be an uplifting film.

Though Detroit is slowly being consumed by the Michigan prairie , it still remains a (fallen) symbol of American capitalism. As irrelevant as census surveys may make it, Detroit remains a relevant symbol for America’s problems. Probably for no other reason than George W. Romney (father of Mitt Romney) was the governor of Michigan who sent in National Guard troops to put down the Detroit riots in 1967. That Detroit is again a topic of conversation under similar circumstances when George Romney’s son is running for President is unsettling.

But Detropia is not just about Detroit, or politics. It is about the people of Detroit, and the film never ceases to remind the viewer of that. Which is good.  The people who call Detroit home are no different than you and I. Hard working, dedicated, middle class and often black. The only difference is that Detroiters now find themselves on the wrong side of history, which is no fault of their own. In many ways Detropia presents the residents of Detroit as those who were blind enough to collectively believe in the American Dream; an idea so novel that it was free from the consequences of greed and consumerism. They traded their time restlessly for a key the American middle class; or the “buffer” as one of the films interviewees describes it.

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Frankly speaking, I did not know that Detroit is going through a major economical crisis: many people just have no jobs, so the majority moves out, the housing and land drastically decreased in price: the filmmakers give an example of a house in a remote neighborhood that was sold for $6000.

My major is journalism, so I loved the way this documentary was put together and filmed in general.  You could see that the filmmakers did a huge job in terms of shedding light to both sides of the conflict, interviewing people who relate to this story from different angles: workers of the big company who lost their jobs, social workers that help these kinds of people, politicians who try to help the dying city and rearrange the neighborhoods, land purposes and budget, the citizens who disagree with the latest, people who crumble down  the growing amount of abandoned houses, those who try to survive in these conditions by collecting and selling scrap metal and those who own a business on the outskirts of Detroit, and finally those, who move in to this city drawn by the housing cost.

I loved the small details that underline the general gloomy mood of the movie: they were showing a lot of old and abandoned houses,closed theatres with a bunch of rotten furniture (they even invited an opera singer to one of these theatres to sing in an empty and shabby walls for the contrast), but the word on the wall, made from remaining letters of the former “auto parts” store sign, which now said “utopia”, seemed to be the apotheosis of the whole comparison of how prosperous the city used to be in the 30-s and how this city is now. It took the filmmakers quiet a while to film all the parts of the movie and put all the pieces together: some parts of the movie take place in the winter and some in the summer.

In general, the movie is just telling us a story of  once “the fastest growing city in the world”  becoming basically shrinking city with falling rate of jobs, and it seems that the only thing that is raising here is crime rates.

I dont think I really liked the movie, and I guess it is because it is lacking the sensation, something extraordinary and extremely interesting. The filmmakers are just showing what is happening very slowly, just like a time bomb, which when once explodes, will give a better movie.

The pictures are taken fromhttp://www.google.com/imgres?q=detropia&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1228&bih=598&tbm=isch&tbnid=rDFALnpWCDCfeM:&imgrefurl=http://detroit.curbed.com/tags/detropia&docid=CSKGkINf-kH3rM&imgurl=http://detroit.curbed.com/uploads/Screen%252520Shot%2525202012-01-20%252520at%25252011.06.11%252520AM.png&w=500&h=282&ei=kJFzULSwOufi0gHM1YCIAw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=103&vpy=158&dur=473&hovh=93&hovw=169&tx=159&ty=109&sig=118304664772334435137&page=1&tbnh=94&tbnw=169&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0,i:95

and

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=detropia&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1228&bih=598&tbm=isch&tbnid=l9lLgD8MuZBbxM:&imgrefurl=http://www.sundancechannel.com/sunfiltered/2012/01/the-sundance-review-review-detropia/&docid=mbuL1lZ7wQyEGM&imgurl=http://www.sundancechannel.com/sunfiltered/wp-content/uploads/detropia-01232012.jpg&w=560&h=385&ei=kJFzULSwOufi0gHM1YCIAw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=313&sig=118304664772334435137&page=1&tbnh=127&tbnw=160&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:0,i:88&tx=55&ty=72

Welcome to the Island of Misfit Toys
Cred to Time Entertainment

Let me start by saying, I have never seen an indie movie nor been to an indie theater so it is fair to say I had my indie cherry popped today. And what a way to  go! Perks of Being a Wallflower was an unexpected delight and to make the day even more memorable, Logan Lerner star of the movie, made an impromptu appearance and had a brief Q&A session with the audience.  I have new found  love for independent movies.  These actors and directors are people like you and I who genuinely appreciate ever fan.

Impromptu Q&A setup

“Perks of a being A Wallflower” has set the bar for modern day coming of age movie.  Charlie, a naive, wide eyed freshman meets Patrick and Sam who take him under their wing and give him something he has been desperately looking for, friends.  Patrick and Sam introduce him to the rest of their misfit crew and the stage is set for a roller coaster ride of emotions and teen angst.  All this while Charlie battles with his own inner demons as he’s still bothered by the deaths of his aunt and best friend.

Stephen Chbosky, director of the film, truly keeps you entertained.  He establishes a connection with viewers and his characters so you genuinely feel for what they’re going through.  We learn through Charlie’s eyes, or rather his ears, as his friends confide in him.  These subtle situations enhance the films charm and reveal essential details of each character.  From Sam’s bleak past with past relationships and Patrick’s dirty little secret there is definitely no end to the drama.

As much as I tried to find some flaw in the movie, I thoroughly enjoyed “Perks” .  I pride myself on being a action, blow’em up movie lover so I was hesitant at first to embrace Perks.  However, there really is something that spoke to the inner teen inside of me.  It is worth seeing the emergence and transformation of these characters from beginning to end, Charlie especially.  Surprisingly, Logan Lerman (Charlie) steals the show from his co actors, Emma Watson (Sam) and Ezra Miller(Patrick), with his meekness and naivety.

Narration of the story is provided by Charlie through a series of letters he writes to an anonymous individual.  He writes for no reason in particular, just in the hope that there is one good person out there who is willing to listen.  The movie unfolds as a diary almost, an intimate account of Charlie’s daily interactions.  Do not be fooled though, amongst the sappy mix tape gifting (recording music on cassettes and given to admirers), Chbosky packs some raw and edgy situations.

Reminiscent of a Peter Parker/Bruce Banner, Lerman deals with family matters, chasing the girl he loves, and suppressing these “bad thoughts.”  He seems to be silent for a bulk of the movie but that somehow shines through more than any spoken lines could.  He starts as a budding bulb and, sprinkled with friends, love, and a dash of drugs, he  blooms into a full grown wallflower.

(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.

Perks of Being a Wallflower was a lot more than I expected. The story line drew you in from the beginning and the constant flashbacks didn’t allow your mind to stray from what was happening on screen.

Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, and Ezra Miller comprise a dynamic trio that might inevitably remind you of Emma’s other two best friends, but these are way less magical and have much more angst.  With an unstable wallflower tormented by his past, a girl who only accepts “the love she thinks she deserves” even though it’s not the right kind of love, and a confident homosexual teen in the 1990s about 10-15 years ahead of his time, Perks conquers as a top film in its genre. 

Stephen Chbosky the director and writer of both the original novel and screenplay, created the epitome of a movie centered on the teenage years in ways other movies have failed. From High School Musical to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (in all its installments) being a teenager, with teenage issues, has always been pigeon holed to just having relationship issues and constant arguments with your parents. Though, nothing less of a real teenage drama could be expected from the same group of producers that made Juno into the critically acclaimed film it is recognized as today.

Even though this has been one of Stephen’s first films to hit the big screen, the prospect of having a major media push (especially after casting Emma Watson to play Sam) didn’t intimidate the story he wanted to tell. As a viewer, you get a raw take on a teenager’s life told from Charlie’s perspective with many different personas rounding out the verdict: being a teenager is walking a tunnel on your own two feet (albeit sandwiched in between friends also making the journey) and coming out the other end stronger.

The rawness, vulnerability, and unpredictability is what makes this a great Indie drama film. 

The story is grounded on Charlie’s letters to an anonymous reader, who allows you to take a step back from the constant teen drive and look at the scene through the eyes of someone older than sixteen. Chbosky creates a platform from where you are able to both experience and analyze Charlie’s life, in a way that no other teenage drama has been able to capture. This film is more than a Freaky Friday outer body experience, it’s a look at real world problems from the eyes of a teenager whose greatest torment is being too aware of others problems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aog8680PVmU

One of the many young men from Detroit who make money out of retrieving old ore and copper from deteriorating buildings throughout the city.

The situation that is going on in Detroit in the last few years is frightening to say the least. With jobs and businesses going down the toilet left and right, the eye-opening documentary “Detropia“, by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, goes deeper into everything that has happened and is still happening in the once great city of Detroit, Michigan. The film is narrated by Detroitians who struggle in the crumbling motor city and talk about about the turning of Detroit from “fastest growing city in the world” to “fastest shrinking city in the world”, which is where the title “Detropia” comes from: the word “Detroit”, of course, mixed in with the suffix “tropia” which means “turning”.

The film follows three die-hard Detrotians who give their perspective on how the state of the city is affecting their everyday lives and the lives of Detroitians collectively: a video blogger, Crystal Starr, a local bar owner, Tommy Stevens and the president of a workers’ union, George McGregor. On a good note, a concerned history-enthusiast Starr, is enjoying the learning experience from the crisis. However, both Stevens and McGregor are finding it difficult to stay afloat amidst the disaster. McGregor pains through keeping his workers happy despite the various pay cuts and job losses, while Stevens is having to deal with a declining business.

With three different perspectives used to describe the overall mood of the people of Detroit, Ewing and Grady effectively tie them all together and make it look like a domino effect. Because of the state of businesses in Detroit, McGregor has to tirelessly negotiate to keep his workers happy. Through the painful negotiation process, jobs are lost in order to reduce pay cuts and because of this, Stevens’ business slowly goes downhill as well because what once was a booming locale for exhausted workers to go to after work, is now slowly vanishing without them. Eventually painting a bigger picture for the viewer that it is effecting every single one of us.

What makes “Detropia”, which was  only the sixth film to be directed by these two very young and talented directors Ewing and Grady, compete with other great devastating documentaries such as the popular “Super Size Me” by Morgan Spurlock and “Home” by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, is that it ingeniously takes one thing people overlook and ignore because they think it won’t happen to them and sequentially creates a visual for them, powerfully summarized by the line towards the end by Stevens: “it’s coming for you.”

Two young, artists of Detroit doing what they do

Regardless of the many downsides that come from the receding motor city, the film does try to display some upsides to the entire situation. As gloomy as things maybe in Detroit, a young couple of artists are able to afford a home and live comfortably. It also included a very interesting stat that although population is decreasing rapidly, the population of youth in central Detroit has increased by 59%. Even with all the pessimistic visions of the future in Detroit, Ewing and Grady attempt to integrate some assurance to it that Detroit is not just a run-down, has-been city whose reputation will remain down in the dumps but there is some optimism.

With Detroit turning into what is is now, “Detropia” serves as a forceful wake-up call for the rest of us. Using The United States as a larger scale to Detroit in the 50’s and 60’s, Ewing and Grady subtly integrate their message that we, as a whole, are heading in the same direction and it’s time to wake up.

Logan Lerman actually visited the movie theater and we got to see him up close and personal. Surprise!

Today, As I sat watching  Perks of Being a Wallflower I had no idea my view of coming of age films would change so radically. In short, I hate these types of movies because it always contains some whiny teen depressed about not fitting in. However, the surprisingly complex Perks of Being a Wallflower delivered so much more than I was expecting.

The film, set in the 1990’s,  tells the story of Charlie (Logan Lerman, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lighting Thief), a passive aggressive, lonely high school freshman who has just gotten out of the hospital for crazy people and hopes to make a change this year. At this point I became interested in why such a normal, nice looking boy was coming out of the Cuckoo’s nest. The movie lets the audience see, in flashbacks, Charlie’s relationship with his aunt as a small boy and how in a horrific accident her car was crushed by a truck right after telling him that she will be right back with his Christmas present.  Already, there is this tragedy and guilt in Charlie’s life that makes the audience understand his watery eyes, his trip to the mental hospital and his longing for acceptance.

His blackouts and bouts of violence also brings a dark element to the film not seen in typical teen movies. The fact that the film doesn’t shy away from this darkness is incredibly appealing and is surely the reason this small independent film has become so popular.

In the film, Charlie goes on to befriend Patrick (Ezra Miller), a flamboyant gay senior, and Sam  (Emma Watson, Harry Potter), Patrick’s step-sister who has a reputation for being “easy.”  Of course, Charlie falls in love with Sam at first sight but she’s dating a college guy and so he loves her from afar. It is comforting to know that this is not the main point of this story. However, like a typical teen movie they do get high and go to parties. However,  in between the normality of teen life is the dark past of Charlie who while intoxicated casually tells Sam that his best friend blew his brains out while in the same breath asking her where the bathroom is. Sadly, I was the only one that laughed at this scene due to how casually he mentioned this little fact. On the other hand is the amazing performance of Miller as Patrick who has his own issues with the jock he is in love with, who just recently learned to love him without being drunk. But it is not all dark as we also get to see colorful characters a la Breakfast Club such as Mary Elizabeth(Mae Whitman, Avatar and the Last Airbender), a goth girl who recently became a Buddhist.

Ultimately, the charm of this movie is the darkness of the characters and the twist of the story which throws the audience an impressive curve ball never seen before in a coming of age film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aog8680PVmU

Do you remember “The Butterfly Effect” staring Ashton Kutcher? I do, vaguely. At the time I thought it was entertaining, but I was also only 15 years old. 15 year olds make for terrible film critics. I do remember it being about about a young man and his feelings (yawn), and every time a butterfly beat its wings he would time travel. Or something like that. This short film, by the same title is nothing like that.

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