About the event
Rerooting the Motor City: Notes on a City in Transformation was produced by Paper Tiger Television members Maria Byck, Amanda Matles, Nadia Mohamed, and Adrienne Silverman. From food deserts, to the plans to “rightsize” the city, Detroiters resist, rework, and remain resilient given the social and ecological failures of post-industrial global capitalism. With a critical lens on race and class dynamics, the human cost of industrial capitalism, produced scarcity and the problematics of frontier mentalities subtending "progressive" politics in the United States today are discussed. Rerooting weaves together segments on Detroit’s labor history, the roots of Detroit's urban agriculture movement, a critical look at philanthro-capitalism and its relationship to urban renewal, as well as media (mis)representations of a city in transformation.
The Right to the City Film Series features five films based on changing urban landscapes near and far: in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Newark, Detroit and Istanbul. The films focus on processes of urban development defined by inequality --expulsions, redevelopment, and gentrification -- and their result. The screening will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with filmmakers Adrienne Silverman and Nadia Mohamed, and CUNY scholars Cindi Katz and Amanda Matles (Earth and Environmental Sciences), and will be moderated by CUNY scholar Bronwyn Dobchuk-Land (Sociology).
Cosponsored by the Sociology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Critical Psychology Departments; the Center for Place, Culture and Politics; the Center for Urban Research; the Gotham Center for New York City History; the Center for Human Environments; and The Public Science Project; the Narrating Change Mellon Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research.
