DETROPIA

Detroit, Michigan once encapsulated America’s ideals: freedom, self-made manufacturing and automobile industries, the establishment of a middle class, and the ever-elusive American dream. Now, Detroit is on the brink of total collapse - economic, financial, and social. As a once prosperous cityscape transforms into an urban wasteland, one would think that all hope is lost. DETROPIA, the latest feature film by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (JESUS CAMP, FREAKONOMICS) proves that this is far from true. Ewing and Grady show a side of the city inhabited by eternal optimists and pragmatic souls who refuse to give up on a city that has been and continues to be their home. Detroit, which can so easily be written off as a woeful stereotype of the declining American mythos, comes alive when its people serve as its voice. DETROPIA proves that Detroit’s young people and its artists in particular have a personal drive to revitalize and reclaim a city that is almost lost. Winner of the Editing Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, DETROPIA is powerfully affecting and not to be missed. (Sam Prime)