Detropia, a film that looks at Detroit's current urban problems through the eyes of some residents who live and work in the Motor City, has had good audience responses at Sundance and at Toronto’s Hot Docs. It opens tomorrow at various Metro Detroit theatres such as the RenCen 4 downtown, Main Art in Royal Oak, and Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor. Windsor Detroit Film spoke with Heidi Ewing (at right in picture) who co-directed the film with Rachel Grady (at left). A review will be posted this weekend. For more go to Detropia’s website www.detropiathefilm.com
WHY DID YOU MAKE THE FILM?
I made the film partly because I’m from the area. I was born and raised outside of Detroit (Farmington Hills). My family had a manufacturing business. I’ve been coming back over the years and things really seemed to be in dire straits in 2008-2009, and we just started talking about it around the office and Rachel and I decided to come here for a few days with our crew and just see what we found in October 2009 and shoot for three days. We came out of that experience thinking there was a very important story to be told here in Detroit. We weren’t sure what it was but what was going on here seemed to be a mirror of what was happening in the rest of the country. And so we set out on a gut feeling that we would find a film here and I think we did.
I made the film partly because I’m from the area. I was born and raised outside of Detroit (Farmington Hills). My family had a manufacturing business. I’ve been coming back over the years and things really seemed to be in dire straits in 2008-2009, and we just started talking about it around the office and Rachel and I decided to come here for a few days with our crew and just see what we found in October 2009 and shoot for three days. We came out of that experience thinking there was a very important story to be told here in Detroit. We weren’t sure what it was but what was going on here seemed to be a mirror of what was happening in the rest of the country. And so we set out on a gut feeling that we would find a film here and I think we did.
ARE YOU AWARE OF A FILM THAT CAME OUT IN 2010, DETROIT WILD CITY, BY FRENCH DIRECTOR FLORENT TILLON, THAT MAKES SIMILAR REFERENCES? HOW DOES YOUR FILM COMPARE?
I think our film’s totally different. Our film is following a handful of lifelong Detroiters – mainly African Americans – who are disturbed by what’s going on in their city but are resolved to stay and stick it out because they love Detroit. And truly our film is more of a meditation on the shrinking middle class and of the consequences of deindustrialization much more than that film.
I think our film’s totally different. Our film is following a handful of lifelong Detroiters – mainly African Americans – who are disturbed by what’s going on in their city but are resolved to stay and stick it out because they love Detroit. And truly our film is more of a meditation on the shrinking middle class and of the consequences of deindustrialization much more than that film.
WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO ACHIEVE WITH THE FILM?
We would hope it would be part of a national conversation that’s starting to emerge now especially with the election in November about the direction of this country, about people in the middle class who are falling into basically the working poor because the employment opportunities have dried up for many, many people, especially those with lower skills. And I think there’s a big conversation about how we’re going to move forward, how we’re going to employ a huge swath of Americans who have lost their jobs, and I think that we are really having a conversation in this country about the role of the corporation in our lives and the outsourcing situation has come to a point where a lot of Americans are very concerned that we’re just going to continue this decline. We’d like our film to be a cinematic and more poetic version of that conversation. And also for other cities experiencing similar things as Detroit to use it as a tool and we see that starting to happen in places like Indianapolis and Cleveland people are seeing this film and starting to instigate conversations about increasing the community involvement in their own cities.”
We would hope it would be part of a national conversation that’s starting to emerge now especially with the election in November about the direction of this country, about people in the middle class who are falling into basically the working poor because the employment opportunities have dried up for many, many people, especially those with lower skills. And I think there’s a big conversation about how we’re going to move forward, how we’re going to employ a huge swath of Americans who have lost their jobs, and I think that we are really having a conversation in this country about the role of the corporation in our lives and the outsourcing situation has come to a point where a lot of Americans are very concerned that we’re just going to continue this decline. We’d like our film to be a cinematic and more poetic version of that conversation. And also for other cities experiencing similar things as Detroit to use it as a tool and we see that starting to happen in places like Indianapolis and Cleveland people are seeing this film and starting to instigate conversations about increasing the community involvement in their own cities.”
WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF DETROIT’S DECLINE?
I think there’s multiple causes. You can’t point your finger at one thing – the fact it’s an extremely segregated city, that the city of Detroit has never been able to mend the racial segregation that started even before the riots (in 1967). I think relying on one industry, being a one horse town, and not diversifying the economy, is another reason that Detroit’s in the situation it is. I feel the Big 3 auto corporations fell asleep at the wheel and lost a major competitive advantage by behaving like a cartel in the 70s and 80s and have never regained that advantage. And I think the corruption in the city government didn’t help.
I think there’s multiple causes. You can’t point your finger at one thing – the fact it’s an extremely segregated city, that the city of Detroit has never been able to mend the racial segregation that started even before the riots (in 1967). I think relying on one industry, being a one horse town, and not diversifying the economy, is another reason that Detroit’s in the situation it is. I feel the Big 3 auto corporations fell asleep at the wheel and lost a major competitive advantage by behaving like a cartel in the 70s and 80s and have never regained that advantage. And I think the corruption in the city government didn’t help.
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?
I think Mayor Bing and President Obama and a lot of people are trying to figure that out right now. I think one of the solutions is really luring businesses and entrepreneurs to Detroit making it very, very easy for businesses to set up in Detroit, using every possible tool including tax advantages and tax free zones, becoming a really wonderful place for business. But the city has got to feel safe and I think that is going to be hard to lure people here if you don’t feel secure. So a combination of measures has to be taken starting with their safety. The schools also require money. So at this point we’re looking at really turning in some ways to the federal government to help Detroit with some of these systemic issues.
I think Mayor Bing and President Obama and a lot of people are trying to figure that out right now. I think one of the solutions is really luring businesses and entrepreneurs to Detroit making it very, very easy for businesses to set up in Detroit, using every possible tool including tax advantages and tax free zones, becoming a really wonderful place for business. But the city has got to feel safe and I think that is going to be hard to lure people here if you don’t feel secure. So a combination of measures has to be taken starting with their safety. The schools also require money. So at this point we’re looking at really turning in some ways to the federal government to help Detroit with some of these systemic issues.
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