detropia epk

7/31/2019 Detropia Epk

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DETROPIAA new film from the makers of Jesus Camp

"The most moving documentary I have seen in years. Both an ardent love letter to past vitality and a gratefulsalute to those who remain in place - the survivors, utterly without illusion, who refuse to leave. The filmmakersare so attuned to color and to shade that I was amazed by the handsomeness of what I was seeing. I'm notbeing perverse, this is a beautiful film."- David Denby, THE NEW YORKER

"Of all the Sundance films tackling the gap between the richest 1% and the rest of the nation, thedocumentary Detropia stands out for how it encapsulates the causes and potential solutions."- John Horn, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

DETROPIA successfully symbolizes Detroit and nation's anguish. Tom Long, THE DETROIT NEWS

"This haunting piece of documentary cinema tells the story of one city in economic decay; but really, as thereal people in the film repeatedly state, this isn't just a Detroit problem; it's an American problem." -Tambay,INDIEWIRE

Imagine if Frederick Wiseman and David Lynch had a bastard child, and you'll get a sense of the movie'soff-kilter aesthetic, a potent and pointed mix of firsthand observation and surreal flights of fancy. KeithUhlich, TIME OUT NEW YORK


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Production Notes

2012 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL FILM GUIDE SYNOPSIS

Detroits story has encapsulated the iconic narrative of America over the last century the Great Migrationof African Americans escaping Jim Crow; the rise of manufacturing and the middle class; the love affair withautomobiles; the flowering of the American dream; and now . . . the collapse of the economy and the fadingAmerican mythos.

With its vivid, painterly palette and haunting score, DETROPIAsculpts a dreamlike collage of a grand cityteetering on the brink of dissolution. As houses are demolished by the thousands, automobile-company wagesplummet, institutions crumble, and tourists gawk at the charming decay, the films vibrant, gutsy charactersglow and erupt like flames from the ashes. These soulful pragmatists and stalwart philosophers strive to makeends meet and make sense of it all, refusing to abandon hope or resistance. Their grit and pluck embody thespirit of the Motor City as it struggles to survive postindustrial America and begins to envision a radicallydifferent future.

LOG LINE

The woes of Detroit are emblematic of the collapse of the U.S. manufacturing base. Is the Midwestern icon

actually a canary in the American coalmine? DETROPIA is a cinematic tapestry of a city and its people whorefuse to leave the building, even as the flames are rising.

RECENT NEWS AND UPDATES:

Facing a $12 billion dollar deficit (partly due to a dwindled tax base) Detroit narrowly avertedbankruptcy in April 2012 by entering into a consent agreement, or a power sharing deal with thestate.

In May 2012 Detroit announced it would shut off half its streetlights due to budget woes. In June 2012169 fire fighters were laid off. One month later the Department of Homeland Security gave a $22million dollar grant to rehire 100 of them.

15 bus lines have been cut in Detroit since 2011. In May, DDOT (Detroit Department ofTransportation) eliminated nighttime bus service and cut service hours on 34 weekday routes and 29weekend routes despite the fact that 1/3 of Detroiters do not own a car (Huffington Post).

In June the city imposed a 10% wage cut for all public workers, including police and fire. The police force recently increased their regular shift from 8 to 12 hours a day. The Detroit Opera continues to function after it narrowly avoided closure in 2011. The company was

able to raise $6 million dollars from supporters as well as persuade the banks to forgive a portion ofits debt.

After stalling for several months, Mayor Bings Detroit Works Project has re-launched and iscurrently holding community conversations to get feedback from residents on the best uses of excessland. There is no longer talk of an official relocation of residents.

American Axle and the UAW did not reach an agreement and the company announced it would closethe last remaining plant in Detroit. A local pickle company is now renting some parts of the factory.


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POPULATION AND DOWNSIZING:

In 1930, Detroit was the fastest growing city in the world. (The Guardian) Detroit's population shrank by more than 25% in the last decade. The city's population has fallen from

over 1.85 million in 1950 to 713,777 in 2010; a drop of almost 240,000 residents in ten years -100,000 more than Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. (The New York Times)

In the last 10 years Detroit experienced a 59 percent increase in the number of college-educatedresidents under the age of 35 moving to its downtown. (The New York Times)

Detroit has about 40,000 abandoned homes and 100,000 vacant residential lots. (The New YorkTimes)

The average price for a home in Detroit is $7,100, down from $73,000 three years earlier. (The WallStreet Journal)

With more than 20 percent of the lots in the 139-square-mile city vacant, the mayor is in the midst ofa program to demolish 10,000 empty residential buildings (The New York Times)

In June 2011 Five Detroit based companies, led by Quicken Loans CEO Dan Gilbert launched LiveDowntown, a program that offers financial incentives to employees who buy homes and rent

apartments in the boundaries of Detroit. Gilbert moved the headquarters of Quicken Loans to Detroitin late 2010 along with 1700 employees.

Officially, Detroit's unemployment rate is just under 30 percent. But the city's mayor and local leadersput the actual jobless is closer to 50 percent. (The Detroit News)

In May 2011, the FBIs list of the 25 most dangerous cities has Detroit as #2 after Flint, Michigan.(CNN)

The median Detroit home price in 2011 was about $54,000 more than $100,000 less than the restof the country.

MANUFACTURING:

In the last ten years, Michigan has lost 50% of its manufacturing jobs. (CNBC) Six and a half million blacks left the South from 1910 to 1970 and became known as the Great

Migration.

In 1965, manufacturing accounted for 53 percent of the economy in the United States. By 1988 it onlyaccounted for 39 percent, and in 2004, it accounted for just 9 percent. For the first time since theIndustrial Revolution, fewer than 10 percent of American workers are now employed in manufacturing.(The Economist)

50,000 US factories have closed in the last ten years (TheWashington Times). In late 2011 and early 2012 The Big 3 began hiring again as car sales began to rise. Over 40,000

jobs have been added to the economy including parts manufacturers. Still, the country has lost over600,000 manufacturing jobs overall since January 2009 (Washington Post).

China has a 113 million strong manufacturing workforce with an average wage of 81 cents-per-hour,just three percent of their U.S. counterparts pay. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Mexicos 10.7 million industrial workers average just $2.92 per hour. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.)


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The number one American export to China is scrap metal. (US International Trade Commission)THE AUTO INDUSTRY:

In1979 G.M. employed 600,000 Americans. Today it employs around 79,000. Since 2007, G.M. hasbought out nearly half of its workers in the US, a total of more than 50,000 people. GM currentlyhires about 8,000 people in Detroit. (The New York Times).

In the late 1970s, G.M. controlled nearly half of the United States vehicle market. Since then, theinflux of robust foreign competitors like Toyota, Honda, and Nissan has cut G.M.s sales to about a

quarter of the American market. (The New York Times)

UAW membership has dropped 42 percent since 2004. About 9% of Americans are currentlymembers of any union. (Reuters)

China became the world's largest car market in 2009. (The Guardian) In Sept. 2011, Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technology refused to let the Chevy Volt

qualify for subsidies ($19,300 per car) unless GM agreed to transfer the engineering secrets of oneof the Volts three main technologies to a joint venture in China with a Chinese automaker. The flapresulted in an agreement between GM and Chinese automaker SAIC to co-produce a new electricvehicle together, in China (The Wall Street Journal /The New York Times).

The recent turnaround in the auto industry brought about by the government bailout has broughtMichigans jobless rate from 14% to 9.5%. Little of that has trickled to Detroiters, where the joblessrate is estimated to be at least 40%.

The Chrysler 200 featured in the Eminem Imported from Detroit Chrysler ad is made in the suburbsof Detroit and the Chrysler 300 and the Town and Country are made across the river in Ontario,Canada.

JOB LOSS AND OUTSOURCING:

Over the last 10 years, U.S. multinational corporations slashed 2.9 million American jobs, whilecreating 2.4 million jobs overseas. (The Wall Street Journal)

The United States is the only major nation that refuses to offer tax and other incentives tomanufacturers who set up shop on American soil. (The Wall Street Journal)

100% net job growth in the US today comes from entrepreneurial start ups (The Wall Street Journal)EDUCATION:

Nearly half the adult population of Detroit is functionally illiterate. (The Windsor Star) 11 percent of Detroits adults have college degrees. (The New York Times) The state took over the Detroit public schools in 2009 Detroit closed 70 public schools in 2010. A current plan calls for the closure of 70 more by 2014,

leaving only 72 public schools in Detroit. (CNN)

ARTS FUNDING:

Over the last decade, the portion of corporate philanthropy dedicated to the arts has dropped bymore than half. 31 states, still staggered by the recession, cut their arts budgets for the 2012 fiscalyear (The New York Times


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In Detroit, with the Big 3 scaling back charitable donations, Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai of SouthKorea are becoming more a part of the city's social fabric by supporting local charities, sponsoringteams like the Red Wings. (The New York Times)

ABOUT THE SUBJECTS

TOMMY STEPHENS: Retired School Teacher, owner of the Raven Lounge. Mr. Stephens, mid 60s, has seenin Detroit for over 40 years. He is the owner of several homes in Detroit (which he renovates and rents) andthe owner of the Raven Lounge on Detroits East side. Open just 2 nights a week, the club is in the shadow ofthe Detroit Hamtramck assembly plant.

GEORGE MCGREGOR:President of Local 22. George (in his early 60s), was born in Tennessee. He arrivedin Detroit in 1967 during the riots as part of the Army unit dispatched to restore calm to the city. When hisservice was done in 1968 he returned to Detroit and began working in the plants and worked his way up theranks of the UAW.

CRYSTAL STARR: Blogger. Age 28, Crystal is the barista at Caf 1515, where she holds a new monthly saloncalled Culturenomics. She is also an aspiring poet. She and her family are from Southwest Detroit.

DAVID DICHERA: General Director, Michigan Opera Theater. Founded the Michigan Opera Theater in1971. With the help of local supporters and Luciano Pavarotti, took a long ago shuttered triple X movie

palace and restored it to create the Detroit Opera House, finished in April 1996.

STEVE AND DOROTA COY:Artists. Both in their late 20s Steve and Dorota Coy are a married couple andvisual and performance artists who have lived in Detroit for a few years. Together they make up The HygenicDress League, an art project meant to send up capitalism and corporate America.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

HEIDI EWING Director/Producer Heidi Ewing was born and raised in the Detroit area around a familymanufacturing business. DETROPIA is her fourth feature length documentary film and is close to her heart. Sheand her directing partner Rachel Grady are best known for directing Jesus Camp, a searing look at theChristian right through the eyes of children. The film was nominated for the 2007 Academy Award for

Documentary Feature. The duo made their feature doc debut with The Boys of Baraka in 2005., a touchingmovie that follows inner city boys to a boarding school in rural Kenya. The film was nominated for an Emmyand aired on POV. The directing team recently collaborated with other high profile nonfiction filmmakers forthe 2009 omnibus documentary film Freakonomics: The Movie, based on the best-selling book. Theircontroversial 12th & Delaware, a searing portrait of the battle between a crisis pregnancy center and anabortion clinic, debuted at Sundance in 2010, won a Peabody Award and aired on HBO.

RACHEL GRADY Director/Producer A private investigator turned filmmaker, Rachel Grady has producedand directed a wide variety of documentaries for HBO, PBS, The Discovery Channel, MTV and A&E. She andher directing partner Heidi Ewing co-directed The Boys of Baraka, the critically acclaimed documentaryfeature that won a 2006 NAACP Image Award and was nominated for an Emmy. Her feature documentary,Jesus Camp, also co-directed with Ewing, chronicles the Evangelical movement through the eyes of children. The

film was nominated for an Academy Award. In 2007 Grady and Ewing also collaborated with several highprofile nonfiction filmmakers for the omnibus documentary film Freakonomics: The Movie, based on the best-selling book. Gradys last documentary, 12th & Delaware, co-directed with Ewing and winner of a PeabodyAward, is a searing portrait of a street corner in Fort Pierce, Florida, where a pro-life crisis pregnancy centerand an abortion clinic are locked in battle.

ENAT SIDI EditorEnat Sidi received the editing award for DETROPIA at the Sundance Film Festival, 2012.She has collaborated with Loki Films for over 10 years, and has edited all of the company's feature films todate (Jesus Camp, The Boys of Baraka, 12th & Delaware and now, DETROPIA). Sidi also edited many other


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prestigious and high profile films, including The Betrayal (nominated for an Academy Award) and the populardocumentary hit Billy the Kid. She is a native of Tel Aviv but cant wait to visit Detroit live and in person.

TONY HARDMON Cinematographer Tony Hardmon is a veteran DP who has collaborated with manyacclaimed documentarians. His recent feature documentary credits include Stacy Peralta's Crips and Bloods:Made in America and Michael Moore's Sicko. Other credits include A Walk to Beautiful and Boomtown.Hardmon was the director of photography on The Boys of Baraka and Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady'ssegment of Freakanomics: The Movie. He was an additional cinematographer on 12th & Delaware and theAcademy Award nominated Jesus Camp. He recently made his directorial debut with Semper Fi: AlwaysFaithful.

CRAIG ATKINSON Producer, Cinematographer Craig Atkinson is originally from Detroit and has workedclosely with Loki Films for the past three years in various roles, including on 12th & Delaware, Freakonomics:The Movie, and True Life: Saudi Arabia. He holds an MFA in Film from Emerson College in Boston. DETROPIA ishis first documentary credit with the role of cinematographer.

DETROPIA IS NOW PLAYING IN THEATERS NATIONWIDE: FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO

www.detropiathefilm.com

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