Detropia

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.

REVIEWS

"The most moving documentary I have seen in years. Both an ardent love letter to past vitality and a grateful salute to those who remain in place - the survivors, utterly without illusion, who refuse to leave. " - The New Yorker"SPELLBINDING! Imagine if Frederick Wiseman and David Lynch had a bastard child, and you'll get a sense of the movie's off-kilter aesthetic, a potent and pointed mix of firsthand observation and surreal flights of fancy. DETROPIA moves with dreamlike fluidity between union halls and nightclubs, from abandoned factories to the Detroit opera house." - Time Out