"Initially when we went there, we were just looking for this Phoenix story. We were hoping there were people on the ground there that were really gonna just fix the place. But after spending a couple of years filming there and spending time with our characters we realized that was just a very dishonest story." - Rachel Grady, Co-Director of Detropia in her interview for the Sundance Film Festival.
"The issues that Americans actually care about right now and the anxiety we feel about our future ... they've been feeling that way in Detroit for, like, 15 years." - Heidi Ewing, Co-Director of Detropia in her interview with PBS.
Let me underscore the following by pointing out that I've yet to see Detropia. It's premiering at Sundance this Saturday and so far only the hype-machinists of the film review community have been able to screen it. So everything I'm about to say is based on what I've read from them, and from video interviews with the filmmakers themselves.
Let me also disclaim that as a filmmaker who is also doing a documentary about Detroit, I was rooting for them to weave a story of hope and promise and not dredge up the same old ghosts of ruin and despair that so many filmmakers and journalists have done before them.
Alas, it seems like the blight temptress has claimed her latest victims. To say, as Rachel Grady did, that angling for revival would have been "just a very dishonest story," is as dishonest as it gets. It's almost impossible to walk through Detroit without stumbling into something amazingly positive and hopeful and beautiful. Claiming otherwise is disingenuous.
Are scenes of renewal as sexy and filmic as a van tow-yanking dilapidated buildings to the ground for scrap metal? Of course not. But that's the shit that wins cinematography awards.
It's harder -- much harder -- to create an award-worthy film about something that's on the rise. Recent Oscar-winning documentary downers include movies like Bowling for Columbine, An Inconvenient Truth, and Born Into Brothels. Rare is the festival-winning doc that leaves you feeling like you want to go out and French kiss a stranger.
At least a project like "Detroit Lives," which so beautifully filmed the very ruin porn they sought to denounce, went out of its way to point out the folly of such glam blight. But not Ewing and Grady. If the press accounts are correct, they marinated in the destruction and shock value of a city that has had quite enough mention of its destruction and shock value. In an otherwise positive review in Indiewire, the writer Tambay says:
Detropia could actually be regarded as an apocalyptic story. You can almost hear the helicopters flying from above the city calling for the remaining inhabitants to evacuate for their own safety and survival.
What a far cry from the "Phoenix" story Ewing and Grady went in to tell. The one they should have told.
I don't begrudge the directors for wanting to make a film that impresses festival judges. Hell, I want the same thing. But these are talented filmmakers with a worldwide audience. Their previous acclaimed films, The Boys of Baraka and Oscar-nominated Jesus Camp, earned them license to make any film they wanted. So it saddens me to learn they've chosen the dark side when their initial intentions seemed so bright.
The world is rooting for Detroit, and to tell another version of its struggles on such a wide stage as Sundance only sets it back, like, 15 years.
Editor's Note: This post has been updated since its original publication.
I'm just a huge advocate of Detroit's potential. And like every Detroiter I've met over the two years I've been coming there, I just want someone to tell the city's story from a viewpoint other than abandonment.
I was looking forward to seeing this film at Sundance, hoping that it would portray Detroit in a manner that acknowledged its struggles without diminishing its positives. Sadly, what I saw was nothing but stylized ruin porn, a cautionary tale for the benefit of others.
I felt the need to respond, especially after a Q&A session where the directors exacerbated the matter by stating inaccuracies, including the idea that there's a single functional grocery store in the entire city. I did so on my blog. The post is at http://digitaldecaf.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/a-despairing-and-unbalanced-portrayal-of-detroit-at-the-sundance-film-festival/
I'm not sure if the directors have seen their own movie, now that they insisted throughout the Q&A that the city is full of optimism (yet there is none in the film), and insist in this comment section that audiences are "touched." Not sure who these "touched" audiences are, but I'm guessing they're probably never going to set foot in Detroit after watching this film.
http://www.freep.com/article/20120120/ENT01/201200411/-Detropia-documentary-Sundance-Film-Festival-shows-different-view-Detroit.
My producer and I grew up in the Detroit area. Our composer and production assistant and sound man live in Detroit. We have worked non-stop in the city for the past two years with love, compassion and focus. So far audiences have been deply touched by our film and we look so forward to showing it soon in Detroit.
Heidi Ewing, co-director, DETROPIA
For the record, I don't doubt that it's a fantastic film. I'm only going off of what a dozen or so reviews I've read so far have said (most of which also say it's a great film). I'm just saying it doesn't sound like a film that will be great for the city.
I don't pretend to know the nuances of "Detropia." When it was called "Detroit Hustles Harder," I was thrilled that someone with your cache was trying to add to the positive momentum of hustle, ambition, and creativity in the city. But the word-play on "dystopia" alone makes fearful.
If it isn't another "Woe is Detroit" film, please accept my apologies. I really hope to be proven very wrong.
Erik Proulx, director, "Lemonade: Detroit"
I'm from the Detroit area, and I don't think it's the filmmakers' responsibility to tell a story that's "great for the city"; their responsibility is to tell the truth. As the quote you start your article with states, they went in with the intention to tell that "phoenix rising" story. But if that wasn't the situation they found on the ground, wouldn't it be dishonest of them to present that fabricated story?
But I, like you, haven't seen the movie. Unlike you, I will reserve judgment until I have a chance to.
This reminds me of how the right wing will shout and scream about some movie coming out that they've never seen -- instead relying on their own preconceived notions to inform them. As is, this reads more like sour grapes over someone else having a film about Detroit come out before yours. Just see the movie and, "like", update your review.
Unlike you, I had the chance to actually see the film at Sundance and can tell you unequivocally it is not "ruin porn" by any stretch of the imagination. It is an accurate and beautiful portrayal of real people living in Detroit and their indomitable spirit and love for the city. You do more to denigrate the story of Detroit with this type of slanderous journalism (obviously very calculatedly written to capitalize on the enormous amount of media attention DETROPIA is receiving - which your film did not receive) than to actually see the film and write and accurate review.