Film director Rachel Grady to screen new documentary at Lyric Theatre Sept. 26
The Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts and Cinema presents an evening with guest film director and producer Rachel Grady, who will screen her latest film "DETROPIA" on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. in the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg. She will conduct a question and answer session immediately following the film. Admission is free.
The documentary focuses on the city of Detroit and its woes, emblematic of the collapse of the U.S. manufacturing base, and its struggle to transform itself into a new and innovative city. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and won the Editing Award for Documentary. Indiewire says, "This haunting piece of documentary cinema tells the story of one city in economic decay; but really, as the real people in the film repeatedly state, this isn't just a Detroit problem; it's an American problem." Slate magazine describes it as, "The defeat of the middle class that has comprised the last decade of Detroit's history. That painful story and its meaning for the rest of America is the subject of Detropia; an important, heartbreaking, and yet still occasionally hilarious documentary."
The film was directed and produced by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing. Grady also codirected "Jesus Camp" (2006), a candid look at Pentecostal children in America, which debuted at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. She and Ewing founded Loki Films in 2001, a non-fiction film production company. The company's projects have also been seen on a variety of television networks including CBS, HBO, A&E, PBS, VH1, Al Jazeera, MTV, CNN and Canal Plus. Both Ewing and Grady have been featured in Time Magazine as innovators of the documentary craft. They are members of the Directors Guild of America as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. They are based in New York City.
Free parking is available in the Squires Lot, located at the corner of College Avenue and Otey Street, in the Architecture Annex Lot on Otey Street, and the Perry Street/Prices Fork lots. Find more parking information online or call 540-231-3200. Alternative parking is available in the Kent Squire parking garage or the Farmers Market metered parking lot, both located on Draper Road. Additional downtown Blacksburg parking information can be found online.
