May contain spoilers: It has some interesting images,anecdotes and stories but for the most part it is nothing but ruin porn. I didn't hate the movie but it really did not go too far in depth about the complex nature of the cities decline. These things include racial tensions, mismanagement, population declines, real estate practices, recessions,public schools, politics, crime and outsourcing. I know they covered some of these things but they barely scratched the surface on many of these issues. I think if you really would like to know some of these issues in a more intimate matter than your better off researching it and watching a show like The Wire. I think that show does a great job of examining many issues that the big cities face and to a lesser extent many cities.

Anthony Ochoa Professor Ivis Zambrana UPP101 TR 23 October 2013 Project 2In Detropia, Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady take a look at the fall of the once prosperous Detroit and more generally speaking the United States. Detropia is a combination of the words Detroit and either utopia or dystopia. Their main arguments or points conveyed throughout the film are the apathy of foreign manufacturers, the decline of manufacturing plants in the past few decades in the United States , and that the accustomed standard of living is closing the gap between wealthy and poor in America. They present these arguments through the stories of various community members who are affected by the loss of population in Detroit and provide social commentary. I would have leaned towards more statistics or studies to make the arguments seem more objective or balance out the subjective-ness of the community members' stories. Detropia uses vivid imagery, humanized effects of the decay, and allusions to the possible future for the rest of the United States.Detropia opens up with a contrast of opera music against the unmaintained Detroit streets leading into the demolition of homes and observations by Video Blogger Crystal Starr. Crystal Starr is a Detroiter who looks for stories and beauty within the abandoned and wrecked buildings. She and a couple other Detroiters offer personal insight and reminiscence in coupling with the heavy use of imagery and statistics. The imagery in Detropia is so vivid and devoid of human presence that the sense of abandonment becomes very apparent to the viewer and contrasts the traditional use of the video medium. The use of audio is limited to the use of contrast against Detroit's prosperous past and for the use of the continued sense of loneliness throughout the documentary. The majority of the quotes are presented in text across the screen to further limit the use of audio. If background music is present it is from the eras prior to the decline and is accompanied by people's fond memories of prosperity. Other background audio is usually somewhat soft and eerie with the sounds of the dying city. The persistent imagery is often heavy with visual juxtaposition such as the beautiful view from an abandoned or vandalized buildings.While Detropia's vivid imagery is lacking in human presence, it places emphasis on the use of a few chosen community members to humanize the decline of Detroit. Along with aforementioned Crystal Starr the other prominent speaking community members are George McGregor and Tommy Stephans whose titles are Local 22: United Auto Workers Union President and owner of the local business The Raven Lounge, respectively. George McGregor is introduced by announcing the latest proposition from an auto manufacturer to the union members, who consider the pay cut proposition an insult. After their refusal of the proposition, the plant was closed and the manufacturing jobs outsourced to Mexico. George McGregor speaks about how the country is losing manufacturing jobs to foreign markets and how there is a growing absence of American-made products. Tommy Stephans speaks about how Detroit is an example of how when jobs are lost, people leave in pursuit of work, which further hurts the businesses by loss of customers. He also speaks about the Americans' choice to choose comparable foreign products at a cheaper price and how it hurts the global economy by supporting foreign markets and their workers.George McGregor and Tommy Stephans speak about the negative effects of outsourcing jobs and buying foreign products. In line with what they have said, it is reasonable to assume and partially alluded to by the directors, America is following suit with Detroit by our continued choices to value competitively priced foreign products over the positive effects of buying American-made products. It is a well known issue in the automotive industry and is showing specifically in Detroit's automotive based economy. If more American jobs and products are given or lost to foreign markets for cheaper production, those American workers will lose their jobs and we will see similar situations to Detroit. Capitalism is the economic system that drives American businesses to compete in order to offer the best product at the lowest price. After WWII, we had spread American ideals and systems, such as Capitalism, to foreign countries. This created competitors in the global markets as we consolidated our emerging industries. Then, we began to move away from manufacturing as labor laws prevented US manufacturers from producing cheaper than foreign manufacturers where different or no labor laws exist. As the director alluded to in the case of the automotive plant in Detroit, Americans have become accustomed to a certain standard of living. The American automotive employees were struggling, refused to be paid less, and were laid off as their jobs were outsourced to Mexico. As shown in the automotive show, the worst part of the cycle of destruction we are enabling is that we further support it, whether through ignorance, apathy, or financial priorities.Overall, Detropia uses vivid imagery, humanized effects of the decay, and allusions to the possible future for the rest of the United States. It is a powerful documentary that outlines the variety of issues that caused the decline of Detroit and is currently harming the USA. Works Cited 1. Detropia. Dir. Heidi E. Ewing. Perf. George McGregor. New Video, 2012. Film.

There is nothing new or surprising in Detropia and I was disappointed in that. The film is a hodgepodge of scenes jumping back and forth between a local bar owner, a useless union representative, an urban explorer and some artistic nomads.The continued denial by the unions to accept current economic realities is now just tiring to watch and evokes irritation rather that pathos.The jobs are not going to come back and pay is going to go down. This is the reality and the future and the unions don't want to accept that fact. In the end, they lose their jobs completely because they would not accept the realities of the current global economy and compromise on a new contract. Their strategy didn't work to well and now another group of people are unemployed.The best part of the film is the bar owner, who despite the loss of his autoworker customers, is still chugging along bringing in his loyal neighborhood customers for some fantastic jazz and food. He is a very nice, educated and thoughtful man who the filmmakers should have followed around exclusively for a year and made the film about Detroit through his eyes, every scene with him is a highlight. I just wanted to reach out and give him and his wife a big hug. Not out of pity but to thank them for hanging in there and being such wonderful people.The whole part about the Opera was out of place here (and just kinda weird). The only thing tying the Opera to Detroit is the fact the automakers financially support it (and probably always will). I doubt that any of the folks directly impacted by job losses and decaying neighborhoods attend the Opera and the Opera audience is probably 95% suburban whites who live outside the city limits.I would rather have seen this time spent on the bar owner or on other residents faced with possible relocation and what their thoughts are about it. The one irate woman at the town hall accusing Mayor Bing of trying to enforce segregation in Detroit (how is that possible when it already is?) is certainly not the only opinion of residents stuck out in the middle of abandoned neighborhoods. I think most folks would welcome the opportunity to move into a better neighborhood filled with life and city services and public transportation, hospitals, schools etc. I would jump on that chance in a minute if I were in that situation.I would have liked to have known more about the urban explorer, she was not flushed out well. I think it is so cool that she explores the abandoned areas and videos her adventures, I would love to do that! but I would like to have known what her purpose is for doing so. Is she working on a project of her own? I would like to have known some more back story on her.Finally the young couple who picked Detroit because of its cheap rent and urban blight to work on their art. This is one part of the story that showed real promise for the cities future. Imagine if artists from all over the world came to Detroit and formed a massive art colony. This one population could produce massive positive change. I wish their story would have been flushed out further as well.Detropia is worth watching, the visuals are fantastic and I wish it would have been about 4 hours long, I would have watched it all! I think the filmmakers tried to be too artsy with it instead of just giving us the story straight up. I hope to visit Detroit someday and see it for myself before all of the history is torn down. 7 out of 10

Detropia is a documentary focusing on the city of Detroit. The film explores the lives of a few of the city's residents including an auto worker's union leader, a night club owner, a blogger/waitress, the city's mayor, a young artist couple, and a few yon men who salvage scrap metal from dilapidated and destroyed buildings. The film lacks a strong narrative push as a whole and in the lives of the individuals it examines. Instead, Detropia acts as a snapshot of the city as a whole zeroing in on the problems facing the dying megalopolis.I adore documentaries like Detropia that focus on a place more than a specific person or problem. I always feel like I'm being allowed to wander the streets and observe the day-to- day lives of the people who inhabit them. It's cinematic people watching, and it's more intimate than I could be in real life. (Wandering city streets and interacting with random people is one of my favorite real life pastimes as well.) I don't think that anything really exists beyond people and relationships. Every city, government, company, church, or civic organization is really just a collection of people mutually committed to perpetuating their relationships with one another, and so I seek the truth of a place in the lives of the people who live there.Detropia doesn't really offer any solutions to Detroit's many problems. Instead, it focuses intently on what is broken and on the small glimmers of hope shining in the lives of the people trying to ensure the city's survival. I was particularly moved by the twenty-something artists who have moved into the abandoned city center to try to fill that decrepit place with life. In an obviously staged, but nonetheless poignant moment of the film, an opera singer explores an abandoned, graffiti-ridden train station. Standing in the main hall, he begins to sing, and his voice inundates that broken place with beauty which floods out across the city. I'm a Christian, and filling what's broken with beauty, making all things new - that's how I understand the gospel of Christ. For me, Detropia leaves no doubt that Detroit needs people committed to that kind of gospel to fill it with beauty again.