Detropia

2012
6.5| 1h33m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 07 September 2012 Released
Producted By: Loki Films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://lokifilms.com/DET_synopsis.html
Synopsis

Detroit’s story has encapsulated the iconic narrative of America over the last century – the Great Migration of African Americans escaping Jim Crow; the rise of manufacturing and the middle class; the love affair with automobiles; the flowering of the American dream; and now… the collapse of the economy and the fading American mythos.

... View More
Stream Online

The movie is currently not available onine

Cast

Director

Producted By

Loki Films

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Images

  • Top Credited Cast
  • |
  • Crew

Reviews

TinsHeadline Touches You
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
jgalla20 Jacqueline Gallapo UPP101 Project 3.Detropia is a unique film. It takes the issues of Detroit's decaying city but then mixes it with the creative prosperities and caring nature of the city's residents. The opening starts with a mix of Detroit's opera and images of the city, as well as, citizens' voices demonstrating in the background. These few minutes truly capture the beautiful sounds the city could have in comparison to the economic landscape Detroit currently offers.To set the background of the status of Detroit the film shows a news reporter, reporting on the demolition of a home. From that news report we learn the severity of the decaying urban sprawl in Detroit. In Detroit, 10,000 homes are set to be demolished in the next 4 years. There are 90,000 more homes ready to go. Every 20 minutes another family moves out of Detroit due to the declining economic opportunities. Following the news report, the film highlights how Detroit was fastest growing city in 1930. This surge in Detroit was due to the industrial revolution and creation of the automotive industry. The automotive plants created an infrastructure that supported thousands of jobs. As competition overseas rose, the numbers of jobs in Detroit began to decline. George McGregor, the president of United Auto Workers union Local 22, notes the decline in jobs in the automotive industry.When George McGregor is introduced he is driving past the Cadillac plant he received his first job at. But now it's not the same plant it was when he was young. Instead it's a smaller scaled plant. This is because part of the processing of the Cadillac left Detroit, thus taking jobs with it. McGregor does a great job of highlighting how the unions are being bullied into lower pay in order to compete with foreign car factories. A prime example of the jobs leaving Detroit is with American Axle moving to Mexico, thus outsourcing more than 2,000 jobs. American Axles last plant in Detroit wanted to cut workers pay significantly. After negotiations with the UAW, American Axles decided that they weren't willing to bargain and instead left Detroit completely. This outsourcing for corporate greed is part of the issue the automotive industry left such a striving city to decay. McGregor says that when the jobs left Detroit, then the neighborhood left leaving the urban sprawl as its remnants. Crystal Starr is a video blogger in Detroit. She explains to the audience that history is meant to be documented. That's why she feels the need to explore and contribute to Detroit's history. While showing a high-rise building she imagines what it may have looked like in its peak. Starr's curiosity and intuition help to shape the film into a piece that focuses on the current conditions of decay that would not otherwise be shown. This young woman holds such optimism and hope as she shows a decaying city. Starr also does a fantastic job of documenting city hall meetings and the chaos that ensues at them. The meetings allow those outside of the city to see from the perspective of a Detroit citizen, what is happening and how the city is dealing with such issues. She is a great leader for the youth of Detroit. Starr's and other young citizens should be considered when higher city officials work on issues in Detroit.Despite the bad economy Detriotians find relief at places like the Raven Lounge. Owner Tommy Stephens says that the city was always vibrant when the automotive plants were there. Workers would flock to his lounge after work and enjoy the music and chicken wings. Then the recession hit Detroit hard, but "It will come back, I do believe" Stephens says. His optimism, like Crystal Starr's, is what all citizens in Detroit need to aspire to be like. Despite the bad, good will come and the city can thrive if you believe in hard work to change the landscape. Towards the end of the film we are introduced to a couple of artists who moved to Detroit to explore the urban landscape, while having the ability to create new artwork. The duo is first shown in the film standing alongside a busy street. They are dressed in blazers, thus looking somewhat like a professional with gold science goggles air mask and glove accessories. The couple holds a sign reading "Give us your money $". This art installment that they are trying to create makes the people in cars passing by think. One woman looks angered and if you read her lips carefully she says an expletive. Later in the film the man explains that they moved to Detroit because the price of living was affordable. Plus the artists had space to work and create large-scale installations without the fear of failure that would be seen in other major cities. Their creativity and openness in moving to Detroit despite the cities flaws are worthy of mention. Citizens like these artists' help to drive the economy.According to the film, the 2010 U.S. Census showed that the population had decreased to 713,000. Despite this decrease there is a 59 percent increase of young adults moving to the center of Detroit. This increase may be what Detroit is looking for. If the youth can continue to come into the city and revive the urban space, Detroit may rebound like Tommy Stephens hope for. Detropia sheds hope upon Detroit with the music and the imagery of a thriving arts program. In the end of the film a silver lining for Detroit is established, autoworkers have had more jobs created. The possibility of a better tomorrow is on the horizon. And with that there still is the cloud of economic troubles and the warning of what could potentially happen to other U.S. cities if their industries leave. Works Cited Detropia. Dir. Heidi E. Ewing. Perf. George McGregor, Crystal Starr, Tommy Stephens. New Video, 2012. Film.
Marek Rybakiewicz Detropia takes a look at the current state of Detroit, the prime example of a remnant of the industrial revolution that has gone awry. Once the center of the automotive industrial upsurge, the film presents a shell of a city that is being torn apart from the innards, allusory towards the infrastructure of Detroit along with the well being and morale of the citizenry. The audience is provided with case studies from similar walks of life that establish the framework for the city itself and the film. To entertain some initial conceptions that the American populace has of Detroit, we are presented with Crystal Starr, a local personal documenter, as she ventures through a wreckage, describing the beauty within and posing the question of how could all of the destruction and abandonment happen, which becomes the focus behind the film. Since the city is known for its automotive industry, the audience is then introduced to George McGregor, head of the local Automotive Workers union, which claims to have to some extent built Detroit. A drive throughout the city with him showcases the idea of past prestige and reputation of sprawling automotive factories, while the camera presents the complete juxtaposition, with abandonment and rust-laden fences lining the former compounds. With no industry to provide a backbone, the film makes Detroit seem destined for failure.The only administrative action shown in the film proves that even the bureaucracy knows that Detroit is crumbling, with lower populations leading to even less job availability, and those with a semblance of higher income moving away as quickly as possible. The potential plans for the future are met with strict ridicule and disdain by the residents, and the film seems to almost highlight ignorance on behalf of the population as an underlying problem, with residents using loud voices and jokes, all in the midst of disjointedness and no organization. To provide a heightened perspective, another local named Tommy Stephans, a jazz club owner, becomes a focal point of the documentary with insights into how the Detroit issue is simply a microcosm of what will most likely happen to America. Now that automotive workers are far and apart, his club has seen a relative downturn in business activity. He believes that workers follow the jobs, and while, for the time being, companies have moved out of Detroit, soon the case will be similar for the country. Purporting that America cannot survive without a strong middle class to buffer between the rich and the poor, the disparity only increases and due to lack of innovation and our desire for a higher quality of life, other countries such as China will dominate the United States in the long run. While there is factual data laced among vivid speculation, the artistic direction of the film seems to be the dominant focus. An elegance and style in decay is shown in the buildings, allowing an introspection on behalf of the viewer, forcing us to revel in the former beauty that the film projects. To energize this beauty, interwoven throughout are scenes of the opera, presumably taking place at the Detroit Opera House, which, along with the factories, was a staple in the vibrant city of the past. These scenes are paired with relative desertion that can now be seen on the streets and buildings, as well as sentimentally in the citizens, creating a contrast between the past and present, and adding depth to the emotional appeal that the visuals as well as the case study reports provide. Towards the finalé of the film there is a fusion of these two themes, as an opera vocalist sings inside of the ruins of a sizable building, showcasing an allegorical longing for the past that all of the citizens seem to make very evident. Apart from all of the emotion of Detroit's story, opposing arguments are virtually absent from the plot line, possibly due to the heavy reliance of the film on the personal viewpoints of a select few, but also as a probable result of the director's obvious bias and artistic strategy. Opening and closing the film with the Crystal Starr's investigative reporting, the audience is dragged into an opinion of Detroit, rather than being allowed to form their own based on data sets, although they are presented throughout, albeit to a much less pronounced extent. It is up to the viewer to decide whether the artistic direction of the film should be allowed to undermine the real world issue at hand, in a film where presentation of a broad picture of the crumbling Detroit is only second to the personal stories of job loss and the foreign market scare.All of this critique is overshadowed, therefore, by the heavy reliance upon appeals to emotion and opinion that are prevalent in the older generation of workers and citizens as present in the film. No form of a long term solution is proposed to this problem, and the glimpse of urban planning solutions we get do not substantiate what should be at least mentioned in the film itself. Even if no solution is ordained or on the horizon, it is my opinion that mentioning the actual state of affairs should have been a key focal point, although there is merit in the artistry and evocation of emotion, as those could potentially breed a sense of activism. Detropia paints a picture of a city that has been through an economic collapse and is dependent solely upon the citizenry to allow for a fresh start, rather than writing an analysis of how to achieve this revitalization. Focusing on emotional appeals and a few stories intertwined with facts, the film adds character and humanity to an issue that needs multiple aspects and perspectives in order to achieve some sort of conclusion, in order to possibly restore Detroit, and ultimately the American economic dream.
celr This film is interesting to watch, especially the tour through the ruins of Detroit, a fascinating graphic representation of the collapse of a major American city. The haunted landscape with its empty houses and buildings (often very large buildings) evokes emotions of loss and decline, both sad and romantic at the same time. I was thoroughly entertained while I was watching those scenes. This documentary also interviews some of the residents of those devastated areas, and while those survivors are likable and interesting in themselves, they seem to have little insight into what's going on around them or why. This video provides a paucity of information about what brought about those alarming conditions, instead focusing on allowing the pictures to tell the story. There are a couple of major omissions that are quite glaring, as if the videographers just had to avert their eyes from the truth because of ideology or just a personal aversion. First is the alarming crime rate. Only about 21% of the homicides are solved. There is no indication here about how dangerous Detroit has become. Another omission is the abysmal condition of the public schools. Without decent schools there is literally no hope for the kids still having to live in the Detroit area. My understanding is that it is not due to lack of money because Detroit schools receive more per pupil than the national average. Only 25% of high school students graduate. A young student is more likely to wind up in prison than in college. A third glaring omission is the fact that the city has been ruled by Democratic politicians for 50 years. The city's problems are to a large extent the result of bad politics, misspent money and cronyism. Without a viable opposition who was there to keep the politicians honest? I don't mind that much if the documentary was just meant to show the wasteland that was once Detroit as a series of visual images for their own sake. However there seems to be something under the surface that is hinted at but never developed. Why did Detroit take such a nosedive in the last decades? I would have preferred a more in-depth analysis. Why couldn't Detroit adapt to changes in the global market? Auto plants in other parts of the US are doing okay. Did the unions kill the auto industry in Detroit? This is a question that is never asked in "Detropia." Perhaps because the filmmakers didn't want to face the answer.
Meghal Saw this documentary at its Toronto screening - wasn't very impressed by the content. By carefully selecting the interviewees and the target demographic, the film maker somehow tends to sensationalise the issue of the decline in Detroit's population.Most of the characters that appear in documentary are African-American, work in auto industry and appear to come from a lower middle class background. Somehow the filmmaker conveniently chooses to ignore the middle class who might also be affected by the downturn in auto-industry but is still surviving.However, the main points that sticks out like a sore thumb is the American hubris. The refusal to acknowledge the fact that Americans no longer rule the auto-manufacturing sector. A character in the movie riles about how Chinese can produce a car at almost half the price of an American car and how this will impact the car industry, not acknowledging the fact that the Japanese has already caused the decline of American car industry.The mayor of the city comes with a novel idea of moving the suburban population to the inner city and using the available land for farming. But that idea is ridiculed by the characters appearing in the movie. When you are drowning and somebody throws you a lifeline, you accept it. Change is an inevitable part of life and it is time Americans accept it.I am not sure if the film makers idea was to raise sympathy for the characters affected by the decline of auto industry, but if that was the case, they seem to hardly deserve any sympathy.P.S. - After visiting IMDb, I realised that this is the same film maker who gave us the wonderful "Jesus Camp". While I enjoyed "Jesus Camp", "Detropia" failed to impress me.