We are pleased to announce our first film festival selection for “After the Factory.”

The film makes its West Coast premiere at Filmanthropy Society Film Festival in Los Angeles. The festival showcases films that inspire, educate, raise awareness and motivate. All film festival proceeds go to the charities of the winning films (ours is Georgia Street Community Collective and the race track we are building). Pretty cool.

If you are in LA, check it out this weekend!

LOCATION
Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Avenue
Building I
Santa Monica, California

SCHEDULE
Thursday, May 17, 2012
2:00pm-7:00pm: Film Screenings
7:00pm: Writer’s Boot Camp Mini-Camp
7:30pm: Premiere of “Staging Hope” followed by Q&A

Friday, May 18, 2012
2:00pm-8:00pm: Film Screenings
8:00pm-10:00pm: Speaker Panel with Andy Lauer of Reel Aid, Ben Phelan of Play It Fwd, and Josh Tickell, Green Technology Strategist and Director

Saturday, May 19, 2012
1:30pm-4:30pm: Film Screenings
6:30pm: Red Carpet
7:00pm: Torch Awards Gala Event

OK, so this post will be a little brag-heavy, but hey, somebody’s gotta do it.

DL! got a shout-out the other day from Richard Florida which was kind of cool. If you’ve read any of his books, you can start to see some of the similarities between his thinking and Detroit. Nevertheless, this series he is writing and filming via the Atlantic (titled “How Detroit is Rising”) ought to be interesting. I hope that the research and the thoughts delve deeper than what has come to be known as the “revival story of Detroit.” I think it’s great that large media bodies are conglomerating around some of the miniature victories being seen in the city right now, it’d be cool if Florida found a way to advance some of his thoughts a step further through Detroit. But anyway, he makes a shout to DL! in the article kicking off the project. See it here.

Separately, Urban Outfitters in the UK is now selling a DL! print. Quite cool I’d say. We are really excited. Mega-fives (the more grandiose equivalent of a high five) to Scott Waraniak for the design work on that particular print and for helping to make us look so good (this is the same guy that did the motion graphics for the Be a Venture piece, designed this site, all kinds of stuff). Anyway, check it (click on the photo to see more or order if you are in the UK):

So yeah, feeling good on this Wednesday morn.

Here’s an interesting projection for you: given annual increases in labor and manufacturing costs in China, in five to six years it could cost the same to produce that same product in the United States. Think about that for a second. Sure, we probably won’t be producing iPhones in the US given the amount Apple has invested in China’s supply chain, or because of the fact that they can be so responsive to spikes in consumer demand. But electronics aren’t the only opportunity. Perhaps, however, the ace in the hole is our ability to produce consumer goods locally that are already seeing a spike in American production– things like soap, ceramics, ethically sourced and produced clothing, etc.

Today I had a meeting with Janet Lees, director of programs and communications for SFMade– an organization in San Francisco that is building a robust network of companies that manufacture consumer goods within the city limits. 300 companies within their network make everything from iPad cases, handbags and beer to electric motorcycles. All in, it’s equating to roughly 2,500 jobs and 80% of San Francisco’s total manufacturing sector– two very impressive figures. Aside from that, it provided 10.5% more new jobs in 2010, so it’s also a growing sector. All of this completely revamps the idea of modern urban manufacturing– for San Francisco most definitely, but how can we learn from this in Detroit?

We have the space. We have the supply base– that is, hundreds if not thousands of people and businesses making stuff. We have the infrastructure to support light and heavy manufacturing. We even have low business barriers. The two hurdles we need to jump in Detroit are two of the things that make San Francisco’s manufacturing sector so successful: an able and willing consumer base that demands the goods and a mayor’s office that supports their growth and activity. All of which presents interesting options and ideas for Detroit’s forward progress. One, let’s try to align public and private resources around cultivating the growth of what is already a robust network of makers (perhaps by starting a task force that funnels resources in to infrastructure improvements to already vacant properties). Two, consider the creation of an organizational body similar to SFMade.org to give the Detroit-based companies a unified voice. Three, let’s put politicians in office that support this kind of activity and want to build it in as part of Detroit’s identity. Four, let’s tell the world about it and get these goods sold in every city in America.

China will grow, it already is. As Americans and Detroiters, however, we have to figure out how to make that liability an asset. We can still have our niche. And of course, let’s not forget that the idea of Detroit’s manufacturing base has already revolutionized the world once.

After a couple weeks on the road, the latest ATF mini-tour came to a smashing close last night in Brooklyn. The good folks at Playground Detroit– a NYC-based non-profit who are drawing ties between the Big Apple and the Motor City– were gracious hosts and brought in a nice crowd with all kinds of interesting questions afterwards. Once again, the Q+A lasted longer than the film itself– a sure sign that something about the film is resonating with people. After stops down south and now in the Northeast, it’s good to wrap things up with an empire state of mind, and head back to the homeland. Home is where the heart is.

Check out some photos from the road, a visual journal of the last couple weeks of our little Detroit roadshow.

Campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

A room full of incredibly smart MIT’ers watching ATF

From big brains to the big apple. NYC!

Promo posters spotted in Bushwick for our Brooklyn screening

A blurry Brooklyn crowd. Cool venue!

Graffiti in Brooklyn. Call your mom for Mothers Day this weekend!

See you back in Detroit, can’t wait to get back home. We have some cool work to be rolling out in the next few weeks!

Through the graphic above, taken from a Freep article by John Gallagher, we get a look at what could potentially be (again, hypothetical!) a neighborhood-level plan for development in communities across Detroit as part of Long Term Planning within the Detroit Works Project.

DWP, all in, is Mayor Bing’s attempt at right-sizing the city, through a variety of civic engagement efforts, design and long term planning measures. If we get this process right as a city, the possibility of our transition to solutions-exporter for other struggling cities gets astronomically higher, which of course plays in to a lot of the work we are doing creatively.