For the past century, Detroit's Cass Corridor was one of the roughest areas in the city. Known as a center of drugs and prostitution, this former red-light district was alternatively known as "Fire Alley," an acknowledgment of its status as the arson capital of Michigan. In 1963, the city's final incarnation of Chinatown was established in the Corridor, but by the end of the 1980s that particular enclave came to its demise. The Cass Corridor is experiencing a complete overhaul, as one of the largest sports developments in the country engulfs the area.
Beginning with an observational view of current-day residents, some who have lived in the area for most of their lives, Last Days of Chinatown is a deft and engrossing meditation on the history, present, and future of the area. With half the neighborhood burned or demolished, the film documents who and what remains in the long beleaguered Corridor. We hear their stories of survival, and learn how and why longtime residents are being forced to the margins of the city as rampant development redefines the area.
Last Days of Chinatown then illustrates in gripping detail the process by which the Cass Corridor has been bought up during a years-long scheme to build a 45-block wide sports-entertainment complex. As new businesses and residents move in, and Detroit's corporate welfare for billionaires Dan Gilbert and Mike Ilitch becomes more apparent, many begin to question just who all of the new investment is intended to benefit.
Long home to the poor and disenfranchised as well as to the artists and visionaries of the city, the area has now been rebranded as "Midtown." Last Days of Chinatown chronicles an emblematic example of the nationwide trend of urban gentrification and shows how it can be possible to erase a place, as well as its people and history, as another is constructed over its remains.
"The issues raised by the provocative film are complex"
— Jana Thompkins, Michigan School of Psychology
"Recommended. Serves two important purposes: to showcase the history and culture of this ever-changing area, and to document its current state before it is subjected to yet another complete remake...Interviews with locals in the area give a wide range of opinions and viewpoints about the neighborhood...The interviews have a very personal feel, inviting the viewer to have a conversation about Cass Corridor, in Cass Corridor...Celebrates the history of the locals in their own right."
— Educational Media Reviews Online
"Thoughtful examination of the revamping of Detroit's Cass Corridor...This has wider appeal as a discussion prompt about such issues as urban development, gentrification, aging, and homelessness."
— Booklist
"Last Days of Chinatown mines evolving Detroit...throughout the film, MacDonald serves as a kind of guide, narrating in a folksy way while including interviews with residents, activists, journalists -- even her late father, whose home from the late 1930s is still there"
— Freep Film Festival
"Hones in on the displacement of the poor and 'unimportant' people to accommodate the march of progress in Detroit. Rigorous in its fact-finding, presenting historic documents and splicing clips of news footage to bolster the narratives of a wide range of Corridor residents, past and present...film ranges gracefully across a gamut of issues...MacDonald's deep engagement with her subjects and surroundings is evident, as well as her painterly eye, in brief moments of vivid beauty"
— Hyperallergic
"A thought-provoking piece — and such an important catalog of the neighborhood's history at a moment in time when that context and documentation is so needed."
— Detroit Free Press
"A great film that tracks and engages gentrification in the lower Cass Corridor."
— Assistant Professor Rebecca J. Kinney, School of Cultural and Critical Studies, Bowling Green State University
"Fantastic film...A sensitive and thoughtful work."
— Professor Jack Cronin, Film Studies, Oakland University
"Offers a most needed counterpoint to the more popular narrative the media's been churning out, plus a good historical perspective."
— KT Lowe, Coordinator of Library Instruction and Service Learning, Indiana University East
"A shockingly real film that documents the impacts of gentrification on vulnerable populations in Detroit. The eye opening stories it gives voice to contribute to a larger narrative about who benefits and who is left behind when urban centers undergo development."
— Rebekah Farrugia, Associate Director, Department of Communications and Journalism, Oakland University
"As an educator who teaches students about social justice, the history of Detroit, and structural inequalities, the Last Days of Chinatown is the perfect compliment to enrich our ongoing conversations around gentrification in Detroit. One of the most striking pieces of this documentary is the illustration of the deliberate nature of gentrification and putting faces to the narrative we hear about people being forced out of their neighborhoods."
— Jenna Steiner, Assistant Director, Community Research and Engagement/Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, University of Michigan
