Detroit
A City Imagined in Film
Published on 22. December 2025
130 pages
978-1-040-48165-3 (ISBN)
Description
Detroit: A City Imagined in Film is a survey of prominent feature films depicting or referring to Detroit, and how they have captured and fed popular perceptions about the Motor City. Detroit, a magnifying glass, through which one sees an exaggerated portrait of America, has rendered itself to the eye of the cinematographic camera for over a century as background, stage and even character.
Guided by Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space, the authors analyse an array of fiction films filmed and/or set in Detroit from 1928 until today and examine filmic practice as one that has perceived, conceived but also produced the city's lived space. The book thus sheds light on how the imaginary around a city can shape or reinforce perceptions that affect it in return, making the reading informative on the tangible power of cinema, the cinematic nature of the city and ultimately exposing the common threads but also the variety of narratives that weave the story of Detroit.
The book is for film lovers, students and enthusiasts of Film Studies, Architecture and Urban Studies, and all those who are interested in Detroit, its history, places, and culture.
Guided by Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space, the authors analyse an array of fiction films filmed and/or set in Detroit from 1928 until today and examine filmic practice as one that has perceived, conceived but also produced the city's lived space. The book thus sheds light on how the imaginary around a city can shape or reinforce perceptions that affect it in return, making the reading informative on the tangible power of cinema, the cinematic nature of the city and ultimately exposing the common threads but also the variety of narratives that weave the story of Detroit.
The book is for film lovers, students and enthusiasts of Film Studies, Architecture and Urban Studies, and all those who are interested in Detroit, its history, places, and culture.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
1 Line drawings, black and white; 42 Halftones, black and white; 43 Illustrations, black and white
File size
5,90 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-040-48165-3 (9781040481653)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
approx. 12/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€78.10
Not yet published
Persons
Carmela Cucuzzella, Ph.D., is Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Design and Full Professor at the School of Design, at the Universite de Montreal. She is a member of the inter-university and interdisciplinary team of the Laboratoire d'etude de l'architecture potentielle (LEAP). Previously, she was a full professor in the Department of Design and Computation Arts, Concordia University, founding co-director of the Next Generation Cities Institute (NGCI) and Concordia University Research Chair in Integrated Design, Ecology and Sustainability for the Built Environment (IDEAS-BE). Her research focuses on the spatial justice of urban form, ecological design and architecture as well a as the didactic phenomena of ecological art and design in the city as a means of raising awareness of various socio-ecological issues. She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, in academic collective books, without mentioning books and collective editions.
Aristofanis Soulikias is an architect, filmmaker, and writer, interested in capturing and expressing essential and often intangible qualities of urban built spaces. His animated films and installations deal with this quest and are produced in the under-camera stop motion technique that involves hand-made objects and silhouettes. He is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Architecture of the Universite de Montreal, pursuing an interdisciplinary research-creation study with the title: "Sensing the city: revealing urban realities and potentials through handmade film animation", which aims at examining the relationship between handmade film animation and the haptic city and how the practice of the handmade film can reveal sensory qualities of the built environment, informing thus designers but also ordinary citizens. His research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Aristofanis Soulikias is an architect, filmmaker, and writer, interested in capturing and expressing essential and often intangible qualities of urban built spaces. His animated films and installations deal with this quest and are produced in the under-camera stop motion technique that involves hand-made objects and silhouettes. He is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Architecture of the Universite de Montreal, pursuing an interdisciplinary research-creation study with the title: "Sensing the city: revealing urban realities and potentials through handmade film animation", which aims at examining the relationship between handmade film animation and the haptic city and how the practice of the handmade film can reveal sensory qualities of the built environment, informing thus designers but also ordinary citizens. His research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Content
Introduction. Chapter 1. Detroit calling. Chapter 2. False promises. Chapter 3. Illicit crossings. Chapter 4. Workers at war. Chapter 5. Murder city. Chapter 6. Cursed and haunted. Chapter 7. Life under the ruins. Conclusion: Persisting and challenging legacies. Filmography
