Kathryn Bigelow, Black Trauma & How There Must Be Two Detroits

[divider type=”space_thin”] I tried, y’all. I really really tried. I started watching Detroit twice — once at the movie theater and once on an uncle’s bootleg when that failed. Never finished it. It felt wrong. Like eating collard greens from anybody other than the aunt who really knows how to cook them. It was a violence. How can I put this… [check_list]

#BigelowDetroit pulled up in its earth-conscious, eco-friendly sedan, parked in year already full of people and history and stories and started re-naming everything because it was undervalued. #BigelowDetroit moved to Detroit but it felt “gritty” and “real” and started a microbrewery soon after with a flagship beer called “’67 Riot” to honor the unspoken history of the city. #BigelowDetroit suffixed the name of her new business “Detroit”, supplying a service she alone deemed as a need and necessary, while stationing its foundation in a nearby suburb.

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Look fam: there is something sadist in the obligation to give hours of your time over to something in the name of being seen as reasonable or fair, of being painstakingly careful with getting it right. Especially when that entity seemingly never cared enough about you, its audience or the work to do the same. And listen, I understand professionalism and objectivity and… stuff. I do. But given the subject and its personal connection to not only myself but family, friends, elders and residents I deeply respect, I can say with no hesitation that there…