Saturday (tomorrow!) will be a big day for Detroit at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah as Detropia will show itself to the world for the very first time. What can we expect from a documentary with a hint of the word "utopia" in the title? From what we can tell, it's part of the explosive, "Detroit as a microcosm of America today," trend which can be found in articles, on public radio, and anywhere else American likes to get all corporate conscience-y on us. So is Detropia original/different at all? The Freep says yes. But to us it seems like it might be more of the same just done a bit better. It's credentials include Oscar-nominated documentary filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (known for the 2006 doc "Jesus Camp.") From what we can tell, they really like the phrase global food chain when talking about the doc. We have not seen the film yet, but our greatest hope is that good-or-bad, its not us-v-them. Which is to say, there is a long running theme of Detroit saying, "that's not the real us," when it sees itself on film while the rest of the world gawks. "Our intention is not that somebody point the finger and say, 'Man, Detroit's really got problems.' If that's what happens, then we've failed at our job," Ewing said this week. Here's hoping!
· Detropia [Sundance}
· 'Detropia,' a documentary at Sundance Film Festival, shows a different view of Detroit [Freep]