{"id":5615,"date":"2012-10-11T17:01:28","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T21:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=3490"},"modified":"2012-10-11T17:01:28","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T21:01:28","slug":"detroit-on-the-big-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5615","title":{"rendered":"Detroit on the Big Screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady\u2019s Detropia<\/strong> <\/a>[M<\/a>] (2012) premiered at this year\u2019s HotDocs Film Festival, the screening was sold out, and with only one screening, many (like moi) were left hoping the talked-about feature doc on the city\u2019s economic decline and struggle to reinvent itself would eventually hit cinemas.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is a plus of HotDocs also owning a cinema: they get to play whatever docs they want, and luckily Detropia<\/strong> has many play dates this month. Among the lesser-known works in this month\u2019s schedule is Julien Temple\u2019s Requiem for Detroit?<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] a 2010 BBC production that will likely get passed over in favor of the sexier, newer film. Don\u2019t ignore it<\/em>, because Temple\u2019s doc \u2013 which is a lot more fiery in content \u2013 fills in some of the subjects Detropia<\/strong>\u2019s makers choice to reduce in order to keep their focus unique.<\/p>\n

It may well be they also realized Temple covered so much ground about Detroit\u2019s race relations and corporation myopia\u00a0 that there was no sense in treading over the same material. That\u2019s why it\u2019s worth catching both<\/em> films, since neither are currently available on home video (and they frankly look great on the big screen).<\/p>\n

The film reviews also have some links worth checking out, but you\u2019ll notice early on my keen interest in Detroit lies in its marvelous architectural history, such as the corporate offices, factories, hotels, and of course, majestic cinemas. (I\u2019ve put the older blog series Abandoned Matinees<\/a> on pause, but it\u2019ll be back with several video links, since there are plenty of urban explorers out there (or as one critic called the topic of ruined buildings, \u2018porn decay\u2019).<\/p>\n

My first memory of Detroit \u2013 and I\u2019ve only traveled there a few times \u2013 was to the Henry Ford Museum as a kid, and I remember the streets already kind of empty, and whole blocks filled with shuttered parts shops and auto repair businesses. This was in the eighties, which may have been the period when businesses and the government were in trouble. Michigan Central Station was still intact when this TV vignette<\/a> aired in 1987, and the United Artist Theatre Building was used by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as a recording theatre until 1984<\/a>. According to these archaic videos, during the early 80s these edifices were still in use, and in far better shape than their horrible current state.<\/p>\n

Getting back to the pair of Detroit docs, both Detropia<\/a><\/strong> and Requiem for Detroit?<\/a><\/strong> are screening at The Bloor this month, and the cinema\u2019s also programmed Julian Temple\u2019s Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Coming next: soundtrack reviews, and a review of Packaged Goods: The Evolution of the Music Video<\/strong>, which ran yesterday at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.<\/strong><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial blather plus Reviews of Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Detropia (2012), which screened at HotDocs this year and finally gets its theatrical run in Toronto at The Bloor alongside a related doc by Julien Temple, Requiem for Detroit? (2010), made for the BBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[214,1579,1580,1107,1583,1584,1581,1585],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1sz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}