Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Detropia (2012)
No matter one’s
politics, everyone knows the American economy started tanking in 2007 and
crashed in 2008, and has yet to really recover. The documentary “Detropia” is
about, of course, Detroit, and its past glory crushed by a collapsed auto
industry hit hard by economic woes, international competition, and its own greedy
execs who would rather pay foreigners pennies per day. Directors Heidi Ewing, a
native of the city, and Rachel Grady, from the East Coast, talk to union reps,
a retiree running a dying restaurant, and a video blogger among a few others helpless
to save their homes. The city’s broke and every cure is bad and –- in the idea
of creating massive farms -- lunatic. Ewing and Grady offer no answers or
judgments, nor do they talk to big wigs or CEOs, but they do show some ironies -–
including an opera house that plays to the rich, while the jobless suffer outside.
One man sings in an abandoned train station that must have buzzed with a few
hundred thousand people every day. It’s certain things will never be the same
in Detroit or in America. Grady said she wanted subliminal. That’s cool. But it’s
also fleeting. B+
Labels:
2012,
auto industry,
Detroit,
Detropia,
documentary,
economy,
Heidi Ewing,
opera,
politics,
poor,
Rachel Grady,
rich,
unions
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