Thank you very much. But this film is just a "checking out movie" for financial research to produce it as a feature documentary. I'm gonna go back in Detroit this summer to do it for real. I hope that you'll enjoy the real movie when it will be done...
florent-tillon.fr

Excellent stuff.

really nice

Very nicely done!

hope you got/get the financing, if this is only a taster I am really interested in what the final product will look like. Good luck!

This is very fascinating. Great work.

powerful visuals! its pretty haunting...nice work

man, this is something else!

Good stuff, certainly not moving to Detroit anytime soon though :)

Best of luck on your project!

Wonderful and beautiful work, but if and when you do the feature, please include more on the politics and and global possibilities that come from this example. It might then be able to really change the way we think about our urban spaces.

Nice work. I visited Detroit about 20 years ago, and found that even then (when the big 3 were booming) the city was a wasteland. It has not improved at all since then. The loss of some of the beautiful old buildings is very sad... There is a lot of history trashed there. Too many people with no drive to improve either themselves or the city around them.

Excellent video. Your cinematography was beautiful, especially your adroit use of juxtaposition.

Great job.
I'm glad you decided to take on this project. Many people aren't aware of the decay that's happening in the city.
I'm pretty sure your film will make someone aware of what's happening.

Vraiment impressionnant ...
Merci

I... love... this.

I really like the shot in the very beginning of the empty streets...

The shots of the Michigan Central Station are beautiful - I've been inside that place a year ago and it is... just amazing how huge and empty and unfinished it is. The front lobby is... to imagine it as it was once was.... was breathtaking.

I'm from Michigan... and with the way the economy has been the last several years... I worry what has happened to Detroit will spread to Ypsi and Ann Arbor and Jackson and all over...

I love emptiness so much... and this has so much of it.

Beautiful.

17:08 = amazing shot. I wish I could 'like' this more than once.

amazing job, really beautiful. thank you for making this. it's always so hard for me to describe Detroit to people who've never been there. i wish this had been 3 times as long.. there is still so much we didn't get to see.

Sucked me right into it! This was really nice. Stange how such big buildings are empty. we don't even have that big buildings in Sweden.

beautiful work! especially at the times of economic crisis...

good luck with the major film!!!

Great video !!!
I was not aware of this ...
My great father lived in Detroit for many years, working in car industries.
At the beginning I thinked it was not the reality, something like Mars Attack from Welles !

Thanks for sharing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go on with the real one !!!

Absolutely fantastic. Brilliant.

This was the best lunch break I spent in awhile watching this video.

I've been to Detroit several times and I love the shots and story you were able to gather. It was erie to see such emptiness in such a large city. The pacing and cinematography were outstanding. Not sure the City of Detroit would be interested in this for their tourism but as a filmmaker I saw so many locations that really peeked my eye. I really wish you the best for your feature.

I moved from Detroit after 37 years of living there just 2 years ago. I could never, ever go back. Yet I have tears in my eyes for all my history there (and all my family who remain) Such a waste. And worse times are just ahead waiting to devour the remains. Such a shame.

There are several photo sites dedicated to the ruins of Detroit. A google search will find them.

I left Detroit in 1988 for Atlanta, just in time! This makes me sad to see. I remember, Emily Gail and Pooh, Rita Bell Prize Movie, The Legendary Bill Kennedy (Extend that arm), Sir Graves wow! Paige Boy Services, and Greek Town, what happen to this great vibrant city.

As a filmmaker who grew up in Detroit, I plan to do at least one movie there. SOSAD! :(

This is amazing! The cinematography, story telling, the song selects, all great!

I live about 30 minutes north of Detroit and just shot some images down there (vimeo.com/2335712).

If you are coming back this summer look me up if you need some assistance!

This is great, you really captured a lot of what's happeing in the D, You even got the crack dogs!!

Amazing shots and interesting ideas about how cities can revert or evolve back to nature.

This is Fantastic. Please keep us updated on the documentary. Beautiful beautiful work. Thank you.

I totally loved this. Your interviewee's along with the shots and editing were amazing. This is one of the best things I've seen on vimeo. I was totally captivated.

Fantastic work. You should also try to get this seen by US buyers. Have you tried HBO Documentaries yet?

fantastique, vous avez le don du journalisme. Le montage des plans sonores = exellent ! continuez...et surtout montrez ce document aux USA.

Very impressive and interesting insight into Detroit.

I am from the area, (not Detroit, just south of it, in Indiana.) It is heavily tied to the auto industry, and my family is still there working to make parts for the Big 3. Even in the 80's, I remember there being a layer of "grime," from the factories...just settled on every thing. Diesel, it's smell, will always remind me of home...in a weird way. Thanks for the good short...
Rex K

When I was a kid Detroit ruled the world. We made all the really great cars and everyone had a good job at one of the big three or suppliers.

This is as much a tragedy as hurricane Katrina, except it happend over many years, not days.

I would like to see the Federal Government step up and tear down all the nasty buildings and return much of the land to farming. Then the city would have a chance to recover.

Watching this is like a kick in the gutt and a warm hug.

Thanks for this and dont change anything.

As bleak as this video is, it's by far the best thing about Detroit I've ever seen. The People Mover is a great symbol of what went wrong. Somewhere I saw a calculation that it cost $500,000 per passenger-mile, or something like that.

In the segment where the guy was pushing ovens, etc. out of the window, you could clearly see the brand-new Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions!

Florent Tillon, you have a great talent. Even in this miserable Godforsaken economy, there must be financing available for an incredible project like this. Keep knocking on doors until you get it!

Hello Florent, Your piece on Detroit is marvelous and very timely. I wrote a piece on Detroit a while back & have a great interest in this amazing post industrial city. I would like to write another piece for my blog about Detroit and post your video and reference your site with it. Please let me know if that is OK with you. I believe Detroit is a frontier and is way ahead of the rest of the planet in our eventual, inevitable shift to a more regional, agrarian, post industrial world. Thanks again for the ghostly, thoughtful piece. Good luck with your future work.

Excellent documentary, Florent; my friend Babalou sent the link to me. I lived in Detroit for many years, on Fourth Street near the New Center area, and in Corktown, not far from the (now nearly gone) Tiger Stadium and the ruin of the train station. While there are plenty of works that focus on the Destruction of Detroit, few if any try to show the beauty beneath the scarr'd surface, which I believe you do. Suggestions: you could touch on Detroit's historical French connections (Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, the founder of Detroit); hidden gems such as the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Charles Wright Museum of African-American History; and Belle Isle. But most importantly, what's missing is: the Detroit River. Most definitely, add some footage of the river, without which there would never have been a Detroit.
But these are suggestions; you already have plenty, and the more you hear from Detroiters, the more suggestions you'll receive--however, you have a great basis here; best of luck to you.

i'm a proud detroiter, and am so excited about the unprecedented situation we have her with our urban praries and farms. where else can you see deer with a backdrop of a city skyline?

driving to the eastern market just this past saturday we had to stop while about 20 wild pheasants crossed the street. on a run last summer i stumbled upon quite a few chickens just pecking around in a field, no more than 3/4 of a mile from the heart of downtown. i've even seen foxes crossing west grand boulevard!

thank you for making this. it reminds me how much opportunity we have here in the D.

oops, I forgot a very important suggestion: the Heidelberg Project (heidelberg.org) and its founder, Tyree Guyton. That is a must-see/must-video on your next visit. Along with the river.

I live in Detroit and can say that this documentary is only scratching the surface. Outside of the downtown core of the city (shown earlier with the train station, housing projects, empty skyscrapers) there are literally vast swaths of open fields where houses once stood.

Instead of Detroit trying to revitalize decaying single family housing blocks, they simply bulldozed them. Between downtown Detroit and the "first ring suburbs" you could literally begin your own forest,. On my way to work one morning I saw a deer grazing in an open field on Canfield between 1-75 and Gratiot.

lovin' it, can't wait to see the full feature after summer! :)

here's an interesting article on the city:

Detroiters carry on amid all the hardships

freep.com/article/20090110/COL01/301100004/Detroiters%20carry%20on%20amid%20all%20the%20hardship

I hope you can finish this beautiful documentary of what was and now is Detroit. The poem about the ghosts walking the streets is beautiful and sad, I see them every day. Also a little update on Dequindre Cut for when you come back. They went through and cut down all that beautiful foliage and got rid of a lot of bridges. It's been replaced by walking and biking trails. It looks nice but I miss seeing the trees out my windows. Good Luck and happy travels!

I know those guys busking in eastern market at 20:40! Dr. Delacroix's Book of 101 laughs with the Ghost Tramp Revival!
This video is so beautiful! vive le detroit.

As our new president hears views from all sides about crumbling America, I hope the issues you raise in the context of Detroit (also applying to Schenectady NY and many other upstate NY cities) are considered as well.
I personally found the introverted nature of the Renaissance Centre in contrast to the extroverted emerging activity of local markets to be most moving.

this is a beautiful piece, i really enjoyed it. it's hard to explain detroit to someone that isn't from here, and this depicted the city very well. can't wait to watch the feature!

And now beavers have returned after a nearly 100 year absence.

freep.com/article/20090216/BUSINESS06/902160355/Leave+it+to+beaver+to+prove+river+cleaner

The empty paved streets going through the middle of fields, the wildlife, it's really amazing. Suburbanities around Detroit are raised to look away from this place. The almost otherworldly reality of the city stands in such contrast. Although even some of the suburbs now show little signs of this decay, too. The dead mall in Pontiac near where I grew up is another example. I was initially resistant to the silence that you capture because it seemed too selective, but it gives the film a nice mood too.

Thank you ! Yeah, my work is not exactly a realistic one... I understand than people could be resistant from that, but, as you said, it's a film before all...
I heard that 23 school of Detroit will be closed. That's rude. It's a little bit schizo for me that kind of news, cause it's going on the way of the film, but in the same time, I love so much this city and its people that it strike the heart to imagine those school closed, those neighborhood vanishing... Sometimes I fell very angry against GM and Ford, who let goes the factory in mexico to make money, and now, weeping in front of the white house asking for money...

Wonderful piece of film. Such an amazing story of hope and new life. Thanks.

Very nice work...very atmospheric. Great job. I'll anxiously await the final product.

i've always loved the look of decaying buildings with plants growing through them, it's really relaxing, but I didn't know about urban farming or stuff like that. very cool and inspiring to see this kind of landscape portrayed as something useful. really wanted to see interviews with more of the people you showed though!

detroit is for lovers....

Ruins possess a special appeal because they manifest the universal process by which nature destroys what human culture creates. The moment in which humanity and mother nature collide often yields an anamoly reflecting the image of a future without mankind. Detroit has always been a microcosm of this perspective demonstrating even the most industrial environment can be reclaimed by mother nature.

Just curious if the new video was being planned / made yet?

so good doc!

awesome...you brought time with you...that's good.

Great film. Makes me want to visit Detroit.

Hello there, if you like this video, you might like mine too. Watch the railer 'Grown in Detroit' on Vimeo or go to grownindetroit.tv

Spread the news!

Mascha!

Great short film. I love your use of space, and the unexpected powerful message of hope in a simpler more connected life!

Obri, powerful response. I see that people refer to this video as an "I am Legend 2" or replying with comments of "I am not moving to Detroit". That's fine, but there's more of an opportunity and a chance to make something with your stamp on it, than there is in a place like Chicago. The desolation can be viewed as sad and lonely, but it's more than that. It's about not repeating past mistakes and looking to the future. I live in Midtown and I've spent weeks in major cities from LA to Boston, but Detroit is a home and a way of life and for that I love it. These types of videos are great because they tug at your emotion - your heart and they provide an education on how we got to this point. Don't just capture the essence of deprivation, but the excitement of rebirth and opportunity/challenge.

Beautiful imagery. You've captured the beauty I see in Detroit. Thanks for making this, would love to dialogue and conspire with you.

god i love detroit.

Hi Florent. I love what you've shot here, it's really beautiful. I wrote a short piece about your work on the Portable Film Festival site (I'm a film writer) ...here it is if you'd like to read it...blog.portablefilmfestival.com/blog/post/detroit-wildlife/

detroit really turned into a ghost town.. all empty, except some gangs and homeless and some very few businesses.

but you know what this would be perfect for? as a HUGE set for movies! if it would be used for that, I bet the city's popularity would increase again.

so where are you, hollywood filmmakers? turn this city into the biggest movie-set in the world!

Hi there! nice one! Are you going ahead with the film? Looking forward to it. We're actually looking for some modern footage from detroit for our film Future for Sale, about Jacque Fresco & an alternative economic system (trailer on vimeo)... If you are interested in sharing some (unused) footage, do get in touch.... best regards Sonja

I've noticed the pheasants and rabbits etc returning as well and it was interesting to see your take on the evolution of our once proud industrial city back into farmland. The reason we don't see more of that is due to the heavy metals in the soil of most of those abandoned lots.

However, as a lifelong Detroiter I noticed some things that an outsider wouldn't catch. Many of your vacant street shots in the downtown area must have been taken very early in the morning, and probably on a Sunday. I'm not taking issue with it, because I understand the point you want to make, but it does make Detroit look even more abandoned than it actually is. There is no denying our situation here is not good, but I can see how an outsider would view this and think "I am Legend". It's nothing like that.

You should also extend your scope out to Highland Park, Brightmoor, State Fair/John R area etc so that people can see that the crisis is not contained just near the Corktown and Eastern Market areas.

Finally, one CAN NOT discuss the destruction of Detroit without covering the completely inept leadership of this city and our schools, if one wishes to teach the viewer how a city can fail so completely. Too often, people just rack up Detroit's woes to the loss of manufacturing jobs, but it is so much more than that. Look at how Pittsburgh has remade themselves after the loss of all the steel mill jobs, into one of the most beautiful cities in the US. The key difference there has been a continuing investment in education and qualified leaders interested in fixing the city rather than just lining their pockets - neither of which we have had in this city.

More damaging than the loss of manufacturing jobs in this city has been the effects of a corrupt city council, mayor and school board over the last 40 years. Detroit Public Schools just recently scored the lowest of any school district in history last month. That is more the result of our schools and our leadership, than any recent job loss, and it sure doesn't bode well for our future when we are turning out the least educated adults in the industrialized world. This is sure to lead to more crime and even less innovation, continuing the downward spiral we have been in for the last 40 years (even while jobs were plentiful, Detroit suffered from rampant crime and flight, proving that manufacturing has only played a small part in what has happened here.)

With your talent, you have a great opportunity to educate people on a subject most will never see for themselves firsthand. Don't be afraid to show the whole picture, truth is actually stranger than fiction.

Nice work, but a complete misrepresentation. You're obviously not from here and chose to look only at the blight. Granted, there is a lot of it, but it is not all that is here. Very sad that you, like many ruins seekers, choose only to show the bad. I can go to almost any city in the US and produce such blight filled images. I, for one, hope that you DO NOT get your financing as all you will be doing is contributing to a false image.

i don't feel it's a total misrepresentation of Detroit. i feel it's only one part of it albeit the bad side of it. i think the artist behind this video could/should show the good things that are coming about because of these hard times. he showcases a bit of it but i do wish to see more of it.

i agree with yuckystuff that the whole picture needs to be shown to educate people about Detroit.

The new version will have a big part of what pulls out of all this. We have good footage from Blight Busters, Peacemaker, D-Farm and even Hanz Farm. With a reflexion about the differences between pionners and settlers.
Actually, the first part of the film will be the negative part and the second one the positive part, if you will...

hi florent,
can you list the soundtrack to this film? i am interested in some of the music. thanks,
patrick

yeah,
the electro is from william basinski, and the classical from bach...

Really affecting work. I was raised in Metro Detroit and this touched me deeply. Nice shooting. Sunday Mornings? Gabrielle Basilico should come document Detroit.

I love how the unions destroyed american industry. Now the unions are destroying public education. America, FUCK YEAH!

Detroit is a great place to raise a family? What part of fucking Detroit are you talking about?