Packard: the last shift to open Free Press film festival

[56packman]

The new documentary "Packard: the last shift" by three-time Emmy Award winning film maker Brian Kaufman will open the Free Press film festival at 8:00 PM on Thursday March 20th, at the Fillmore/State theatre on Woodward.
This film will reveal a lot of the intrigue into how this property went from being a quiet storage facility/business incubator to becoming the ruin that it is today, and will cover many of the parties involved in this sad transformation. Tickets are $10, VIP tickets with a VIP reception beginning at 6:30 PM that evening are available for $25.

http://freepfilmfestival.com/schedul...he-last-shift/

Come see what I have been discussing for years on this board.

[dmike76]

I have tickets and I'm looking forward to it.

[WaCoTS]

does anyone else cringe at the part in the description where it says that the Packard was the "Escalade of its day"?

lol thats like saying that Diana Ross was the Britney Spears of her day.

[Packman41]

Tonight is the premiere and it is nearly sold out.

Yesterday the film maker, Brian Kaufman, did an interview on the Craig Fahle show. He spoke about how the Packard was forced into the condition it is today and mentioned his interview with Dominc Cristini.

Click onto this link to hear the audio recording:
Opps! my cut-and-paste function no longer works here, so you will have to find it on wdet.org for yourself. Could someone else post it for me?

Thanks

[56packman]

WaCoTS-YES--I wanted to scream when that fool called a Packard "the Escalade of its day" --what an ignorant statement for a car that was called "the American Rolls-Royce" a purpose-built luxury car designed with smoothness and utmost reliability. Not some tarted up middle class boat and Airstream puller on a truck chassis.
As for the film, I give it a strong "B" grade. He handled the early history of the plant well, a nice tight synopsis of Packard as a company and their product, the structure's use after Packard shut down in 1956, The arrival of Dominic Christini as owner/operator, Too much time spent talking about raves that took place there in the 90s, too much time spent talking about and legitimizing "taggers", then the good part, the film really points to the illegal and incompetent actions by the city of Detroit and how they trampled over Dominic's rights. He presented about 75% of the information about this, the other 25% is VERY interesting, my friend Don Sommer was interviewed, and appears in the film in very short segments, he was filmed explaining all of this intrigue but that footage was left on the cutting room floor. That was the glaring omission to me.
Lots about the scrapping [[again, legitimizing illegal activity, too sympathetic) , and the lawlessness, and that needed to be said, and how the city has turned a blind eye towards that activity. A very moving set of clips from a DFD Battalion leader about the harsh realities the structure presents to his men. I wish the film had covered more of the deep political intrigue as to how the structure was taken from Dominic, and how high up and wide this corrupt action was. But, he has a patron paying for this project, the Free Press, and they don't want to make waves that way--I get that.