Character Search for Documentary

[Sabrina]

Hello everyone,

my name is Sabrina Wulff. I'm a 2009 graduate of the Munich Filmschool in Germany. Right now I'm preparing my debut feature film in Detroit which I will start shooting in January of next year.

Based on five individual fates of two generations of ‘middle class’ workers in the struggling car industry our feature length documentary wanders with them through an American metropolis of which many believed would shine forever: Detroit – their hometown, that brought itself and its country wealth and power but now seems to fail like the old boomtowns of the gold and silver rushes did, as though it had been mining automobiles and the veins ran dry. The repercussions on the families seem oppressive. Their once relatively unworried ‘middle-class’ life seems to be shaken to its very foundations, nowadays often ruled by existential fear. What happens within humans who are about to lose their dream for which they kept working hard as upstanding and proud citizens all their lives? What happens within families with their various generations if something that structured their life, their rhythm, that gave them social recognition is about to break away?

I hope you will forgive me my impression on your city and working field as Non- American, as Non- Resident of your city. But through many blogs/forums [[for example one of yours: http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/10041/171073.html?1237830488) and articles I read I came to the conclusion that many seem to experience the reversal of the American dream in your city, are ruled by the fear of loosing their houses, their jobs in the automobile industry which enabled the modest wealth; many that seem to feel unprotected not so much in their hometown, but in their homecountry that seems not to care too much about their once shiny ‘middle-class’ that is now endangered to fall apart and needs a voice. It’s the middle class that makes a country rich and strong, yet it seems many politicians have forgotten that.

By coincidence I stumbled over the above mentioned and now sadly inactive archive site as Lowell Boileau just told me. He suggested getting on the site I’m now on and ask for your help which I really hope you won’t deny me.

As a first approach I’m looking for Skype interviews with men and women in their forties and fifties and people in their twenties connected with the car industry, who still have work, are about to lose work or are out of work for quite some time now to get a deeper impression on the situation, the pressure they have to live with every day. At the moment it is very important for us to move from the paper to the screen, to meet someone on a ‘personal’ level, with expressions and gestures; because we can’t come to Detroit at the moment Skype seems a great invention to overcome this obstacle.

In January /February 2011 we are about to plan our first trip to Detroit, to start filming [[for about 4/5 weeks) and until then hope to have found women and men who are interested in sharing their thoughts and everyday lives on a deeper level with us, will welcome us in their houses, invite us into their family lives, their everyday fears and worries they share among each other– with us [[a team of three) as silent observer around.
The next trip is planned in May for another 4 weeks and maybe another extended one in July.
As you might see we really want to get to know women and men and their families. I strongly believe that approaching someone has to be build on the foundation of trust, has to come from a place of honesty and that’s what we are looking for - something you need quality time for.

I myself lived for a year in Chicago in 96/97 and experienced in my host family how tough it is when you stand at the edge of an abyss – my host dad got cancer and because of the high treatment costs my family not just feared losing a loved one but also their home, their beloved street and neighbourhood; a time which was very formative to us all. It was also during that time that I got the chance to visit Detroit very briefly. For my graduation film I also visited the States not long ago, travelling through Texas, Indiana and New York.

I hope that I could give you an impression of how we work and what we are looking for and again hope that you will help us in connecting us with someone you know in the auto industry or maybe are part of it yourself and want others to know about your situation and will allow us Skype interviews in the very near future as a beginning.

I really hope to hear from you soon! My address is: sabrina@wulff-online.com.

Sincerely yours,
Sabrina

[Lowell]

Welcome to the forum Sabrina and welcome to Detroit!

[Mikeg]

As a first approach I’m looking for Skype interviews with men and women in their forties and fifties and people in their twenties connected with the car industry, who still have work, are about to lose work or are out of work for quite some time now to get a deeper impression on the situation, the pressure they have to live with every day.

If it's your goal to provide a complete assessment of what has happened to former employees of the auto industry in this region, perhaps you should also include someone who lost their job but were not "out of work for quite some time" because they took action and either:

a) found temporary employment in a similar occupation, usually for lesser pay and minimal benefits [[some have found these jobs in another state, but because of their personal and/or housing circumstances they must leave their family here and commute home on weekends)
b) re-educated themselves and found employment here in a different field, often for lesser pay and benefits.
c) built on their individual talents and skills and began their own business, usually for lesser pay and benefits.

Their stories might not be as numerous or sympathetic as the ones you asked for, but it would be wrong to leave the impression with your audience that everyone who was formerly connected with the auto industry in this area is frozen in fear of the future or helpless to deal with the past.

[Sabrina]

Dear Mikeg,

thank you very much for your elaborate response. I absolutely agree with you which clearly shows me that I did not express our intention to the fullest. It is not our goal to show sad people in a sad surrounding. The situation I described should just be the initial situation that at best trigger processes of action we would like to follow over the shooting period of half a year, human beings who confront their personal fate with their unique American optimism and pride, who fight for what they believe in.
I hope I could make it a bit clearer what road we would like to take.
Might I ask you if you know someone who might be interested in taking part?

Many greetings,
Sabrina