It is rare when a feature-length documentary makes it to the big screen, and even more rare when it emerges as a box office smash. Yet that was the case with Michael Moore’s Roger & Me.
The 1989 documentary full of scathing satire, black humour and heart-rending pathos chronicles the rapid decline of Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan, which also happens to be the birthplace of General Motors.
In the late 1980s, GM, under the direction of then-chairman Roger Smith, mothballed eleven plants in Flint and laid more than 30,000 workers.
GM's diminished presence in Flint proved devastating for the community; the unemployment rate soared, along with the crime rate. Overnight, businesses failed and thousands of former breadwinners found themselves collecting Social Security.
Within a few short years, a once-vibrant hub was proclaimed the United States' worst city by Money magazine.
Some 25 years later, I visit Flint to see if anything has changed since Roger & Me was released.
Watch as I show you the scenes, and ask citizens if they agree with Michael Moore's thesis, namely:
That since GM began in Flint, the company had an ethical and moral obligation to remain fully committed to the city.
(And I wonder what, if anything, Moore is doing to help the hometown that made him famous.)
Hard to say that it was avoidable given the inertia that Flint had built in the preceding decades when GM was King.
Flint, Detroit and many other auto industry cities crashed because they relied on a single industry (in some cases, a single business) for their viability. People were lulled into a false sense of security by this and assumed that the industry would remain static although industries never do. Municipal politicians and bureaucrats made no efforts to diversity the local economy and no one saw the train coming. That said it’s very sad to see how devastated these communities were. The people are not at fault. They were led to believe, by their employers, unions and civic leaders, that the jobs would be there forever and all they had to do was keep showing up for work and believing what they were being told. Hopefully these communities can rebound but it will take some out of the box thinking for that to happen.
I’m wondering if, during your assignment in the Detroit area you’ve seen signs of the early stages of the renaissance that some say is taking shape there?