'Requiem For Detroit?'

Last night I watched Julien Temple's documentary, 'Requiem For Detroit?' about the city of Detroit. And what an astonishing film it is, full of what could easily be post-apocalyptic images of the 20th Century. Vast open and empty spaces of the inner city, majestic freeways with no cars compared to film from 50 years ago with the same freeways log-jammed with cars, and trees growing on the top of empty sky-scrapers. Images of a city reverting back to nature with buildings being eaten by greenery and debris covered streets beside burnt out buildings. What has happened to Detroit and why didn't we know about it before?

People started leaving Detroit in the '50s to live in suburbia, in satellite towns, that means they no longer need to go into the city, and the ultimate effect of this has meant businesses close down, shops move out of the city and then the infrastructure starts to break down since there aren't enough people paying taxes to keep public services going. According to the film, something like 47% of people still living in Detroit are illiterate and schools are closing. For those left in the city, where is there to send their kids to school and where can they buy food? The film ended with scenes of gardens being turned into allotments to grow food.

There's a highly complex web of explanations behind all this - the impact of the car and capitalism are key - but the saddest is the casual and institutionalised racism that seems to have dogged Detroit throughout the 20th Century. The industrial explosion attracting workers from the south also brought segregation that led to Detroit facing race riots in the '50s and '60s. As white people exited the inner city for the suburbs they've left a city with a population 80% black and in ruins. How has this been allowed to happen to what was once America's fourth biggest city?

It's a very thoughtful film with the central narration coming from the images of the city and current and past residents talking to camera. Peppered with some of the music from Detroit's past (notably Motown and The Stooges) and a snatch of Bowie's 'Panic In Detroit'. It was nice to see an interview with Martha Reeves who is a member of the city council. It was also one of the oddest scenes, with Martha walking through a vast hallway with an endless expanse of carpet in what I assumed was city hall, with no-one else in sight, a huge empty space that should have been buzzing with people, and then in the distance, finally, we see another human being. Most odd. Try Googling 'Detroit ruin' and you get nearly one million results - take a look at some of the images.

Julien Temple wrote a far more eloquent article about his film for The Guardian so take a look at it. Is Detroit dying or evolving? Who knows, but if you get the chance, watch the film.