Florent Tillon’s low budget tester film ‘Detroit Wildlife’ is a masterpiece in its own right.
Beautiful cinematography is carefuly edited together to tell a brief history of the city through the eyes of several long-time residents observing the decline of their hometown. They’re a hardy lot; in recent years they’ve lived through loss of industry, strikes, civil rights issues, rioting, the influx of drugs, exploitations of big businesses – and, like the film, manage to remain optimistic about their environment.
Despite Henry Ford’s best efforts, Detroit is still a desperate, desolate landscape. Even newer parts of the city seem empty, the ruined areas but echoing vessels of unrealised hope. Here old bastions are abandoned, projects are unfinished, lives and locations are rendered derelict.
Says one resident: “Detroit is reverting – but this isn’t a bad thing, its part of this transition of it going from being the big industrial city to being in more of a rural type situation.” Documenting the efforts of local residents scavenging abandoned buildings, growing their own produce and exploring the urban wilderness, the film grows to reveal fresh sides to a changing city. In fact, this juxtaposition is the film’s major strength.
Is Detroit’s degeneration/regeneration foreshadowing the fate of the rest of the world? With dwindling natural resources, it’s likely that we’ll live to see many other cities in states of decay just like this. Is it time to change the way we conceive our urban spaces?
www.florent-tillon.fr
thanks for this one, the reverting situation is pretty interesting.