Friday, May 7, 2010
The Future, sadly...? (Requiem for Detroit)
The remaining parts can be watched here.
I was introduced to the documentary through an LSE podcast, in which I listened to an mp3 of the screening, followed by a frustrating discussion that seemed like a wasted opportunity, sassy school teacher aside. I recommend downloading the 'cast and taking it for a random walk through your cityscape... I found it very evocative and moving, literally an invisible sountrack for one person's evocation of Detroit...
I guess this also leads us back in to a discussion from two years ago which looked at Detroit techno in terms of its myths, legends, heroes, tragedies, ironies and so on... here, here, here, and here.
beautiful, moving work.
ReplyDeleteyes! i watched the first half of this on bbc iplayer but it expired before i got a chance to watch the rest of it. the future (for those in the West, barring mass emigration from places no longer able to grow food because we're fucking the environment) is right.
ReplyDeleteexcellent documentary, cheers
Quite a moving and enlightening documentary. I can't say that it showed me anything completely new, but it really encapsulated the issues facing Detroit. Which is particularly important for those in America who choose to ignore the 40+ year rotting from the inside that Detroit has suffered and probably even more for Europeans who, I feel, probably don't know much about the tragic history of what used to be one of the greatest American cities.
ReplyDeleteAlso- Just went back and re-read that Detroit conversation. (Yeah, I had a slow day) Really top stuff. Very thought provoking (I found myself talking to my computer screen a lot), even if the comments sometimes left a bit to be desired.
Thanks for posting this. The end was particularly interesting for me. The idea of people removing the ruins of it's industrial past and returning it to farmland is just so fascinating. Kind of gives me some hope, but it's really a bittersweet feeling.
ReplyDelete