Murder City? Detroit Native Crafts Documentary—Detroit: 100 Years of Crime and Violence
Posted by bigced on July 2, 2008
Written by Biba Adams
July 2008
What must Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac have envisioned when he stood on the shores of the Detroit River? When he built his little fort and called it De’Troit did he ever imagine that it would become a bustling city? Could he have imagined that the city would boom and then bust, in a major way? No, 300-plus years ago, the founders of this city could not have imagined the many great, and some not so great, things that would take place within it’s boundaries.
“Detroit has long been a buzzword for the national media. If you want to say Black, without saying it, just say Detroit. If you want to say Black people are violent, you can say ‘People are violent in Detroit.’” This observation, made by Al Profit, a Detroit native, and documentary filmmaker became the basis for his research on crime in the city. The result was Murder City, Detroit: 100 Years of Crime and Violence.
The DVD is nationally distributed, available all around the world in stores and on the internet. Documenting Detroit’s 100 year history as it relates to its crime statistics, specifically organized crime, Murder City is receiving positive reviews. With the national airing of the city’s dirty laundry, one can only wonder if the film will reinforce negative stereotypes. “To people outside of the city, it may reinforce some stereotypes, but they already have them.” Profit explains, “I tried to include historical data for people to understand the city better.”
Al Profit, which is the moniker he prefers, is a Detroit native, a Caucasian lifetime resident. A graduate of Cass Tech and the University of Michigan, he also holds a Master’s Degree from Wayne State in Economics. He got the idea for the film after working in the Department of Urban Studies at Wayne State University. After studying and researching statistic after statistic on the city, Profit knew there was a story there, “In a city with a 300 year history, there are a lot of stories one could tell.” he says, “However, crime is something that affects us all. If you live in Detroit you know someone who has been killed or has killed someone.”
So what can we learn from capturing the images of 100 years of crime onto film? Murder City retells the stories of The Purple Gang, Jimmy Hoffa, Y.B.I, The Chambers Brothers and the more recent, Black Mafia Family. “This is just stuff off the news, it’s the real thing. I didn’t invent anything.” Profit states that there is much all audiences can gain by watching the film which may bring up difficult memories, “There is a very strong self-identity (in Detroit). We tend to see us saying something bad about Detroit as us saying something bad about ourselves.” Moreover, the problems of Detroit are systematic, its not just a Detroit problem, it’s an American problem.
More information on Murder City, Detroit: 100 Years of Crime and Violence is available at www.themurdercity.com
