stories & info for an optimistic doc on Detroit

**Antoine** · August-02-10, 09:39 AM

Hello,

I’m working at a Swiss production company which has already shot a feature film last year in California [[US) and Japan.

We are now planning to make a feature documentary about Detroit [[US) and Toyota City [[Japan). According to me, what makes Detroit and Toyota City so unique is their historical relationship with the car industry. They are twin cities for this specific reason.

We would like to focus on the way the two cities are facing the car industry crisis, the impact on the local population and how they try to overcome it. In short : what could embody the revival of Detroit today?

It could be a story of a successful person, or a charismatic politician / music star / cinema star..., or a new hype district, or a flourishing Mexican restaurant, or the development of new kinds of craft / arts. Anything!

Any idea or experience?

Antoine

**Lowell** · August-02-10, 11:36 AM

Welcome to the forum Antoine. Are you looking to focus on a single person or business? Are you speaking of the City of Detroit [900,000] or the international metropolitan Detroit [5.5 million]? We tend to use the two interchangeably but there is a difference. Detroit is also often used as a nickname for the American automobile industry.

Have you visited Detroit yet? I am sure there are many willing to help out and make you feel welcome.

**Antoine** · August-02-10, 12:09 PM

Thank you Lowell for your answer. I was speaking of City of Detroit, since we would like to compare it to Toyota City [[400,000).

We are still at an exploratory stage, and we just know information from newspapers/wikipedia/bogs [[I've never been there), which is obviously necessary but not enough. What we are looking for is a "human factor" : a single story, a successful enterprise, a new powerful association... Anything that could help us define our topic.

It's only when we'll have a precise idea of what should be explored that we will investigate in Detroit.

**Focus313** · August-02-10, 12:54 PM

Look up the history of "Poll Town", lots of people can still speak of that mess.

**Antoine** · August-02-10, 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by Focus313

Look up the history of "Poll Town", lots of people can still speak of that mess.

I've tried to find info about it, but wasn't successful. Could you be more precise please?

**ndavies** · August-02-10, 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by Focus313

Look up the history of "Poll Town", lots of people can still speak of that mess.

Actually that's Poletown, Not Poll Town.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poletown,_Detroit

**Antoine** · August-02-10, 03:11 PM

OMG it's dreadful! Is the city going to restore this area?

**ndavies** · August-02-10, 03:59 PM

How can you restore something, when most of poletown currently sits underneath a working auto assembly plant?

This is the factory where the salvation of the auto industry, the New Chevy Volt, is going to be produced. [[Yes, that last sentence was sarcasm for the sarcasm inpaired.)

**sumas** · August-03-10, 01:24 AM

Look up Georgia Street Community Gardens. It is a very inspirational story.

For an interesting interpretation of how and why Detroit became the Motor City contact The Village of Fairview Historical Society president.

Sadly, I don't see any one organization or business that would exemplify a phoenix like rise for Detroit. I do see however a ground swelling surge of effective non profits. Connecting the dots for the various groups causes might make for a compelling story.

**Antoine** · August-03-10, 03:26 AM

Originally Posted by sumas

Look up Georgia Street Community Gardens. It is a very inspirational story.

For an interesting interpretation of how and why Detroit became the Motor City contact The Village of Fairview Historical Society president.

Sadly, I don't see any one organization or business that would exemplify a phoenix like rise for Detroit. I do see however a ground swelling surge of effective non profits. Connecting the dots for the various groups causes might make for a compelling story.

Hi sumas. That looks great. It makes me think that there was a doc called "Grown in Detroit" that stressed on urban farming in Detroit. I haven't seen it but it was quite renown. But Georgia Street Community seems different : more a social interaction than a new kind of business. Am I right?

I have read that the Mexican community was quite successful, thanks to the increasing popularity of Mexican restaurants. Have you noticed that too?

**sumas** · August-03-10, 07:30 AM

GSCG's started with one man determined to fight blight in his neighborhood. What attracted me to his project was Movie Night for the area kids. Prior to the movie at dusk various volunteers would read to the assembled children. This led to a book distribution, then acquiring schoolbook supplies, a purchase of a vacant home and storefront to be used as a community center and various creative fundraisers and activities which bennefit area children.

This collaborative has attracted a diverse group of supporters, urban and suburban. The harmony and diversity of this group and the education these kids receive about communication, cooperation, collaboration, consideration and caring is perhaps as valuable as the stress placed on raising/eating fresh fruit and vegetables.

If you want info on Southwest Detroit/Mexican town talk to Elena Herrada.

**Kathleen** · August-03-10, 07:56 AM

Check out Open City, founded by Liz Blondy and Claire Nelson, both of whom have started their own businesses in Detroit and are looking for ways to help others realize their dreams.
http://www.opencitydetroit.com/

Liz owns Canine-to-Five, a doggie day care.
http://www.caninetofivedetroit.com/staff.php

Claire owns the Bureau of Urban Living, a home store
http://www.bureauliving.com/

**Antoine** · August-03-10, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by sumas

GSCG's started with one man determined to fight blight in his neighborhood. What attracted me to his project was Movie Night for the area kids. Prior to the movie at dusk various volunteers would read to the assembled children. This led to a book distribution, then acquiring schoolbook supplies, a purchase of a vacant home and storefront to be used as a community center and various creative fundraisers and activities which bennefit area children.

This collaborative has attracted a diverse group of supporters, urban and suburban. The harmony and diversity of this group and the education these kids receive about communication, cooperation, collaboration, consideration and caring is perhaps as valuable as the stress placed on raising/eating fresh fruit and vegetables.

If you want info on Southwest Detroit/Mexican town talk to Elena Herrada.

I've sent her an e-mail. Thank you

**Antoine** · August-04-10, 05:11 AM

Originally Posted by ndavies

How can you restore something, when most of poletown currently sits underneath a working auto assembly plant?

This is the factory where the salvation of the auto industry, the New Chevy Volt, is going to be produced. [[Yes, that last sentence was sarcasm for the sarcasm inpaired.)

Would you know someone I should contact on this issue?

**Kathleen** · August-04-10, 08:58 AM

Antoine: Can you be more specific on who you would like to talk to? Are you looking for someone who can speak to what happened and its ramifications to the city of Hamtramck and the Poletown area? or something else?

**rb336** · August-04-10, 09:29 AM

Antoine, actor Max Gail [["Wojo" on Barney Miller) did a documentary on the Poletown debacle several years ago. If you can contact his Full Circle productions, it might be beneficial.

There are a lot of interesting things going on here, from urban farming to arts. They aren't always headlines, but they are worth hunting down. I think there are tons of intriguing things in the news -- the bridge debate, the success of Corktown after the Tigers left, the revival of midtown through lots of grass roots work.

**Antoine** · August-06-10, 03:45 AM

Originally Posted by rb336

Antoine, actor Max Gail [["Wojo" on Barney Miller) did a documentary on the Poletown debacle several years ago. If you can contact his Full Circle productions, it might be beneficial.

There are a lot of interesting things going on here, from urban farming to arts. They aren't always headlines, but they are worth hunting down. I think there are tons of intriguing things in the news -- the bridge debate, the success of Corktown after the Tigers left, the revival of midtown through lots of grass roots work.

This is the kind of contact I was looking for. Thank you for your help.
By the way, when I'm looking for something about Detroit, I very often read the names of local teams : the Tigers, the Red Wings, the Lions... Does that mean that sport is more important in Detroit than in most of American cities? As I'm not American, I don't know if every city is so fiercely proud of its own teams... [[for instance in France, only a few cities present this particularity, but only for football : the PSG team for Paris and its suburbs, the OM team for Marseilles and the south of France, the OL for Lyon, and I think that's all)

**Lowell** · August-16-10, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by rb336

Antoine, actor Max Gail [["Wojo" on Barney Miller) did a documentary on the Poletown debacle several years ago. If you can contact his Full Circle productions, it might be beneficial.

That's not quite accurate^. Max was featured prominently in the outstanding documentary called "Poletown Lives", made by George Corsetti, who is a Detroit activist, lawyer, film maker and a leader of the fledgling Green Party. The film follows the community's resistance to the demolition of Poletown - a must-see film IMO for anyone's Detroit 101 education.

**Antoine** · August-04-10, 03:55 AM

Thank you Kathleen. I will contact the city for more info about it.

By the way, as Detroit citizens, what do you think of hybrid and electric cars? Do you think it could help the car industry to restart?

**George Cassidy** · August-06-10, 06:19 AM

Antoine, it seems to me that this is not the way a valid, paid researcher goes avbout doing his homework. Can we have more information about your antecedents/credentials before we open the kimono any further? What were your other projects and where are they available?

Got to admit, I can;t imagine why anybody would pull the chain of Detroiters at this point in history but, if anybody would, my money is on you.

I am working, by the way, on a project involving comparisons of cheese in Wisconsin and Emmenthal. Any help you could give me would be appreciated.

**Antoine** · August-06-10, 07:15 AM

Originally Posted by George Cassidy

Antoine, it seems to me that this is not the way a valid, paid researcher goes avbout doing his homework.

We're still at a pre-development stage and haven't decided on a specific direction yet. When the project will be clearly defined, of course we won't only do research on blogs and emails. But as the proverb says : "You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs".

Originally Posted by George Cassidy

Can we have more information about your antecedents/credentials before we open the kimono any further? What were your other projects and where are they available?

Thus far, we've only worked on fiction films, which includes several award-winning short films and a feature film that'll be released next year. This film is a road movie that was partly shot in Toyota City. This gave us the idea to compare this city to its twin one : Detroit.
If you're more interested, please PM me and I'll give you more details.

Originally Posted by George Cassidy

Got to admit, I can;t imagine why anybody would pull the chain of Detroiters at this point in history but, if anybody would, my money is on you.

I know several docs about Detroit have already been shot. But as I said before, our particularity is to compare its history to the one of Toyota City.

Originally Posted by George Cassidy

I am working, by the way, on a project involving comparisons of cheese in Wisconsin and Emmenthal. Any help you could give me would be appreciated.

Again, if this is not a joke you can PM me [[please don't feel sorry if it wasn't, but since I've been spoiled on another blog for a unknown reason, I've decided to be more cautious this time).

Antoine

**George Cassidy** · August-16-10, 07:00 AM

I had my tongue way up my cheek on that one.

**night-timer** · August-16-10, 12:42 AM

Antoine, if you need a stills photographer for this proposed movie, contact me. I sent you a PM and hope you still visit this forum.

**fryar** · August-16-10, 08:32 PM

The revitalization of Detroit is very significantly affected by the axis along Woodward Avenue from the recently redeveloped Riverfront up to a renovated Campus Martius Park to the sports stadiums around Grand Circus Park and up along the proposed M1 Rail to Wayne State University and the "New Center" or midtown neighborhood for which WSU is an anchor [[along with the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Detroit Science Center). I only lived in Detroit for three short years, and even in that time, the change in downtown was dramatic. There's a real upward trajectory that begins at a low point, when the JL Hudson building is demolished in a cloud of smoke, which may have seemed to Detroiters very symbolic at the time, and includes the new baseball and football stadiums, the new Riverwalk area and Campus Martius park along with other downtown parks [[Cadillac Square, Harmonie Park/Paradise Valley, Capitol Park), the renovation of many [[sadly not all) Detroit landmarks, such as the Opera House, the Fox Theater, the United Artists Theater building, all of which has improved downtown greatly, and this will spread to midtown as soon as the M1 Rail is built. I don't have all of the facts at the ready on my fingertips, but these are some things I might try to find out more about, even just by googling them, in order to find out more about the ways in which Detroit has turned some important corners in the last ten years. If I were to do an optimistic piece about Detroit, I would take the developments in downtown as a sign that the era of sprawl is over and the city is being made interesting again for people, that this is likely to spread more visibly to an improving midtown via the M1 rail [[in fact, there is a new park there as well called New Center Park, I believe), and in areas that are not directly affected by these efforts [[maybe yet), organizations of volunteers like the Georgia Street Community Collective, the Central Detroit Christian Community Development Corporations, Motor City Blight Busters, and many others are picking up the slack. That would be my positive doc about Detroit.

There you go, I have given you plenty of stuff to google, methinks. :-)