Detroit, MI
‘Resurgo,’ Detroit doc 20 years in the making, heads to Ann Arbor
Filmmaker Stephen McGee has been working on his film since he moved to Detroit in 2005.
Stephen McGee has spent so long making his Detroit documentary “Resurgo: The Rise From Within” — he’s been filming it for 20 years, and shaping it for at least the last 10 — that he’s having a hard time walking away from the project.
As the city it documents lives and breathes, so does the film, and McGee isn’t quite ready to lock in his final edit. Even after showing the film several times, he’s still tinkering with it, adding in a quote here or a few frames of footage there every time he shows it to a new audience.
“It’s hard to know when a 20-year project is done,” says McGee, who has been documenting Detroit since he moved to the city in 2005. “Each screening is a new way to see the life of this film and where it should go, or how it’s going to live.”
His next screening is Friday, when McGee shows the film at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. It will be his biggest screening yet, following late 2025 showings at the Emagine Royal Oak and the Birmingham 8, as well as a premiere at October’s Fresh Coast Film Festival in Marquette, where “Resurgo” was awarded the festival’s Best Feature prize. He has future screenings planned in Grand Rapids (Feb. 26) and Farmington Hills (March 7).
McGee, 44, describes “Resurgo” — the title is Latin for “I rise again” — as a “visual symphony of humanity.” It covers the Motor City’s history and its rise and fall through its 2013 bankruptcy to its current state, and McGee talks to residents and civic leaders about the city’s character, resilience, spirit and resolve.
McGee, who grew up in California and moved to Detroit in 2005 when he was hired as a photographer at the Detroit Free Press, has had a front row seat to one of the city’s most stunning rehab projects: His Corktown house sits across the street from Michigan Central, and he has documented the building’s revival in an official capacity for Ford.
That perspective provides a framework for “Resurgo,” along with McGee’s personal story as a husband and father of two living inside the city. The film — which features footage of Jack White and Kid Rock, and narration by Big Sean — then dives into Detroit’s present and past, its comeback narratives and its rejection of comeback narratives.
McGee culled the film — or is still culling the film, as it were — from thousands of hours of footage and millions of photographs, with which he’s filled some 50 or 60 hard drives, he says. He drew inspiration from “Baraka,” director Ron Fricke’s 1992 documentary, which used no narration or voiceover to tell its story of humanity.
His partner on the film is Jessica Care Moore, Detroit’s poet laureate, whom he met while doing a TEDX Detroit event in 2010 and has since become a close friend and collaborator.
“‘Resurgo’ is gorgeous, it’s (McGee’s) heart on his sleeve,” says Moore, who carries a producer credit on the film. She says she appreciates McGee’s perspective as an outsider to the city, as well as his ability to listen to and observe voices inside the city and help tell their stories, hers among them.
McGee’s work is “undeniable,” Moore says. “We’re going to keep making films together, ‘Resurgo’ is just the beginning,” she says.
Since leaving the Free Press in 2007, McGee worked as a freelance photographer and videographer, and he has done projects with Ford, Dan Gilbert — McGee did Detroit’s 2017 pitch video for an Amazon headquarters in the city — and the Kresge Foundation.
At one point he says he was close to securing a seven-figure sum from a major investor to complete work on “Resurgo,” but the deal eventually fell apart.
“Having that fall through was probably one of the best things that ever happened to the movie,” McGee says. “Because if I would have had the pressure to finish a film because of a budget, this wouldn’t be the film that it is.”
As “Resurgo” began to take shape, McGee always kept the end product in mind, even if he wasn’t sure what it would resemble. “I’ve made trailers for it basically every year, because I had to tell myself that the project was real,” he says.
He then hit the edit hard in 2024 and started coming up for air with it late last year. He began submitting “Resurgo” to film festivals and showing it to local audiences, selling out several screenings.
McGee would like to take “Resurgo” on the film festival circuit and eventually secure a distribution deal.
He’s also considering touring it around the country and leading discussions after the film, since he’s had healthy Q&A sessions with audiences after each screening of the film thus far, notes from which he’s taken with him back to the editing bay. He also sees parallels with what Detroit has been through to emerging storylines in cities across the country, including his hometown in San Francisco’s Bay Area.
During a visit to Ann Arbor last week, McGee pounded the pavement and handed out flyers to passersby to get the word out about Friday’s screening. Standing on stage at the Michigan Theater, McGee gazed out at the auditorium of the historic venue, with 1,500 empty seats laid out before him.
It felt daunting, he said, and then exciting as it began to wash over him.
“It kind of feels like the film’s real,” he said. “Sometimes it doesn’t feel that way, but now it does.”
agraham@detroitnews.com
‘Resurgo: The Rise From Within’
7 p.m. Friday
Michigan Theatre, 603 E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor
Tickets $11.75 for adults, $9.75 for students and seniors
marqueearts.org
(WXYZ) — The highly-anticipated premiere of “The Odyssey” is officially here, with showtimes starting Thursday across metro Detroit.
The epic, directed by Christopher Nolan, was shot entirely with IMAX cameras, the first film to be shot with them. It will be available to watch in a variety of formats in the area and across the state.
On the website for the film, it lists all of the premium format options and where you can find them. Check out the details below.
IMAX 70mm
This is the premiere format to watch the film, presented in IMAX’s 1.43:1 expanded aspect ratio, according to the website.
“It is the largest and highest-resolution format available and gives you an unparalleled sense of immersion as the image fills IMAX’s signature floor-to-ceiling screen,” the website reads.
Across the country, there are only a 30 theatres that are capable of playing IMAX 70mm, and only one in Michigan. To see the film in that format, you’ll have to go to Celebration! Cinema in Grand Rapids.
IMAX
As we’ve said, “The Odyssey” is the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX cameras. “The film was shot and designed to be experienced on the biggest screen possible, and IMAX delivers on this,” star Anne Hathaway said.
It comes in the 1.90:1 expanded aspect ratio, filling your entire field of vision.
There are several theatres showing the film in IMAX in metro Detroit. They are:
- MJR Southgate
- MJR Troy
- AMC Forum 17 in Sterling Heights
- AMC Livonia 20
- AMC Star Great Lakes
- Cinemark Ann Arbor
70mm
The 70mm film is a large format that “offers a bright, clear image up to 3 times the resolution of standard digital projection formats,” according to the website. It’s shown at a 2.20:1 aspect ratio.
In metro Detroit, there are three theatres showing it in 70mm. They are:
- MJR Southgate
- AMC Forum 17 in Sterling Heights
- AMC Livonia 20
35mm
35mm is the classic film format shown at a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. “It projects light through the entire 35 millimeter frame to deliver clear, high resolution images with rich analog color,” the website reads.
Only the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor is showing the film in 35mm.
Dolby Vision
According to the film’s website, The Dolby Vision projection system has a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
“Dolby Vision allows you to experience every detail and nuance captured by the large format film cameras Christopher Nolan used in production,” the website reads.
You can see the film in Dolby Vision at AMC in Clinton Township, Sterling Heights and Great Lakes.
Premium Large Format
The premium large format movie will be in either 2.39:1 or 1.85:1 aspect ratio, depending on the theatre. “It features larger wall-to-wall screens, superior projection technology, including laser projection,” the website reads.
Here are places you can see “The Odyssey” in Premium Large Format.
- MJR Southgate
- Emagine Royal Oak
- Cinemark in Taylor
- MJR in Sterling Heights
- Emagine Woodhaven
- MJR Westland
- The Riviera in Farmington
- Emagine Canton
- MJR Partridge Creek
- Emagine Rochester Hills
- Emagine Macomb
- Emagine Novi
- MJR Chesterfield
MJR Waterford - Phoenix Theatres in Monroe
- Emagine Saline
- MJR Brighton
- Emagine Hartland
(WXYZ) — The third annual Detroit Sandwich Party is coming to Eastern Market on Labor Day weekend, bringing a massive free festival for sandwich lovers.
The festival is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 6 at Eastern Market. It’s organized by Carlos Parisi, Will McDowell and Bekah Galang.
Watch our 2025 interview with Carlos in the video below
Detroit Sandwich Party returns to Eastern Market with an expansion on Aug. 31
Organizers are looking for vendors, volunteers and sponsors for the 2026 event. You can learn more and sign up to be a vendor, volunteer or sponsor here.
The event is free to enter, and each vendor will be selling smaller-sized sandwiches for purchase, so people can try as many sandwiches as they want.
Below are some sandwiches from the 2025 festival from Leña, Tall Trees Cafe, Bar Chenin and more
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