Saturday, June 9 @ 4 pm > Dreamland Film Center > 812 E. Market St
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Driving through abandoned streets and past decaying storefronts, a union leader gravely intones what we are all thinking: “Witness the failure of the Great American Experiment.” He doesn’t speak in the immediate present, with the near collapse of GE in the wake of 2008’s financial crisis, nor does he speak of the recent past, and the enormous numbers of jobs lost during the Bush presidency. He speaks of decades of misuse, neglect, and apathy that have gotten us to this point. Through the stories of a half dozen Detroit citizens, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (whose similarly eye-opening documentary Jesus Camp took the world by storm in 2006) show us the death of a great American city. They manage to create an apocalyptic vision of a city at the end of the world, like some nightmare of death and destruction. Through local artists, young business owners, video bloggers, and yes, laid off union workers, we are brought face to face with their choices: despair at the dystopia that surrounds them, or hope for rebirth, and a new utopia. – Ben Creech
Directed by: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Produced by: Craig Atkinson, Heidi Ewing, and Rachel Grady
Cinematography by: Craig Atkinson and Tony Hardmon
Film Editing by: Enat Sidi