Film shows economic decline in Detroit

Detroit’s population plummeted 25 percent during the past decade, according to the 2010 Census.

Directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing captured the faces and images behind the Motor City’s steady economic decline in their newest documentary, “Detropia.”

The film will show at 9:30 p.m. today and Saturday, 6:30 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday at IU Cinema.

Teaming up after their Oscar-nominated 2006 documentary “Jesus Camp,” Grady and Ewing were able to fund the filming, production and editing of the film.

Grady and Ewing raised the rest of the money with a Kickstarter campaign for the film’s release.

Released by Loki Films, which Grady and Ewing founded in 2001, the movie opened in September and has been shown in 31 states throughout the U.S. It has also been screened internationally.

According to film reviews, the movie provides glimpses into the lives of young blogger Crystal Starr, retired teacher Tommy Stephens, local United Auto Workers head George McGregor and others who form the portrait of an imploding city.

“The idea is to make your audience work a little and to sort of mimic, at least to a certain extent, the experience that you had making it,” Grady said. “It’s just a more profound experience, I think, if you don’t totally spoon-feed your audience. That’s what we try and do for all of our films, and that was our goal for this one, as well.”

Winner of the U.S. Documentary Editing Award from the Sundance Film Festival, “Detropia” took about two years to film. While Ewing’s parents are from Detroit, Grady said she had also spent a great deal of time in the city.

The couple on the film’s cover — a man and woman wearing gold spray-painted gas masks — represent the new creative class of artists going to Detroit, Grady explained.

Grady said the film can be a cautionary tale for people entering the work force. In Detroit, everybody had relied on only one employer, she said.

“There was no diversification, and it came back to haunt them,” she said.

- Jaclyn Lansbery