The collapse of the American dream is happening right now. Detropia was one of the most evocative and haunting documentaries I caught last year at True False Fest and now that it is available for streaming on Netflix, this is a documentary I have to bring up. We see it everyday on television, we see in our city and community, and I might not be effecting us directly, but I can assure you that this is something can and probably will happen to us sooner or later. Detropia is documentary that shows the aftermath of the collapsing American dream. It’s focus, Detroit, a city that was a bustling mecca for automobile makers, the burgeoning middle class and the effects of a collapsing economy when the jobs move overseas, the government becomes broke and a city is on the cusp on folding up. This is about as real as it can get.
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. With its vivid, painterly palette and haunting score, Detropia sculpts a dreamlike collage of a grand city teetering on the brink of dissolution. These soulful pragmatists and stalwart philosophers strive to make ends meet and make sense of it all, refusing to abandon hope or resistance. Their grit and pluck embody the spirit of the Motor City as it struggles to survive postindustrial America and begins to envision a radically different future. — (C) Official Site
I don’t think that there is a perfect representation of our economic strife than what Detropia manages to capture on film. A documentary that artfully encapsulates on a small scale what the economic troubling times we are in when it focuses on the city of Detroit. The Motor City was once the city of industry. Automakers flocked there and a strong middle class was born out of the industry to sate the needs for Americans and their love of cars. But once it was known that cheaper labor can be found outside of the US, well then the jobs moved, the opportunities were less and the city suffered and it still is suffering. Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (Jesus Camp) don’t give a history lesson on the situation of Detroit, but opts to let the people tell the story of living in a once powerhouse city.
We see a city in ruins, blocks of houses that are run down and in dilapidated states, a city where crime somehow becomes a business enterprise for those with nothing, and a city where the citizens cling to a hope that some would say isn’t there anymore. The directors focus on several people, one a young blogger who is documenting what is happening to her city, giving it a behind enemy line view on rundown schools, abandoned hospitals and an outlook for the young generation growing up in Detroit. She sees it all crumbling in front of her eyes, the hope that there is no possible future for people her age and that the city is slowly shrinking into a husk of its former self. Another perspective comes from a bar owner and union worker at the auto plant. A man who has seen it all and lived through the good and bad times, hopping that things will turn around, hoping that there is some light at the end of the tunnel of economic downturn. I mean you can only get so low before you have to come back up.
I found this to be an absolutely power film, evocative in its message and captivating in its portrayal of the fading motor city. Some scenes of the city look like it was taken from a war torn country, but its just a part of America, one where the neglect and collapse of the economy is slowly taking away the luster of a once great city. In some ways it is heartbreaking to see the downsizing of a city instead of the prosper of a city. They are facing the almost inevitable choice of having to consolidate the city in order to better serve the public with it’s public programs and even offer police and fire department assistance. But there is a some sort of hope that is there in the documentary through the images of Detroit and the people that live there. While some have given up hope, there are those that will live and die fighting for a better Detroit. It might seem like the American dream is dead there, but it is alive and kicking in those that will not give up the hope that things will turn around. From the young blogger who is hoping the youth of the city will be its savior, to the bar owner who keeps the spirits high, never letting it all collapse on the people he helps with his bar and the workers he assists. There are signs of life to be had in the ruins of Detroit.