Documentary film by Erik Prouix highlights the resilience of Detroit while paying for itself through a Buy-A-Frame offer
?I think that it?s a city that has begun to realize that it?s really only gonna be lots and lots of small solutions,? says one of the subjects of ?Lemonade Detroit,? a film that highlights stories of resilience in the Motor City. ?One building, one block at a time, one person at a time, one life at a time,? says another; yet another adds, ?Lots of little things, that?s the future.?
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They are community leaders, entrepreneurs, automobile manufacturers. They are Detroiters. And they refuse to believe that their city will not bounce back from the post-industrial crisis it finds itself in, with a drastically reduced population ? now at 714,000, down from 2 million around 1950 ? high unemployment, and an enormous swath of the city?s property lying vacant or blighted.
Erik Proulx, the creator of ?Lemonade Detroit,? who is based in Austin, Texas, began filming ?Lemonade Detroit? nearly two years ago. The stories of resilience he was finding in Detroit, stories of residents worked to create a future in a city that many said wouldn?t have one, needed to be told, he knew.
He is taking a unique approach to the film?s production, allowing individuals to become co-producers by purchasing frames or parts of frames ? not only helping with the film?s expenses, but also creating a sense of engagement for people who see the film?s value as a motivator for other projects of resilience and social innovation. So far, 2,344 producers have funded 63,381 frames.
The film opens with a stunning performance by Detroiter David Blair, reading aloud his poem, ?While I Was Away,? an ode to the city?s liveliness and a plea for its brighter future.
?My heart beats like tool and dye for you/Like horse power and pistons for you,? he says, lovingly. Blair, who recently passed away prematurely due to heat stroke, stands knee-deep in snow, gazing toward the city?s high-rises, projecting his voice toward the city where people are building a way forward for the city that once stood as a pillar of American industrial wealth.
Below, Proulx shares with Dowser the motivation behind the film and its crowdsourcing approach, and a few thoughts about the film's impact.
Dowser: How did the idea come about?
?Proulx: This is my second ?Lemonade? film; my first was bout people who got laid off and reinvented themselves, their lives and careers. And that was a wake-up call ? that I had an opportunity in this seemingly devastating global crisis, that there was something I could do about it. And I was screening that film in Detroit in 2009 and there were about 400 people who had lost their jobs and I was sharing this film with them and I thought that there was going to be a case where I?d have to get people to understand that this isn?t Polyanna, you can actually do this, and really, all my preconceptions were wrong. My preconception coming in was, oh, it?s really bad ? because I?d never been to Detroit before. So that struck me as interesting ? if any population in the country of all the screenings I?ve been doing would have the right to feel disenfranchised, it would have been them. But actually, there was an amazing optimism. The more I asked around, the more stories that I found, and I kept seeing this "never say die" resiliency. And that?s why I wanted to make a film specifically about Detroit.
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