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
DETROIT ― The crowd wasn’t large ― a smattering of about 40 or so people at Detroit’s historic Palmer Park just north of downtown on a warm and muggy summer evening.
The people who did show up were there because they feared something precious could be lost: the relationships between therapists and the people who trust them with their deepest wounds.
This is what democracy often looks like. A tent. Some speakers. Livestreaming on social media. And waning sunlight seemingly trying to figure out whether to set in fiery red-orange or fade behind rainclouds.
It was my pleasure to witness this moment firsthand because we live in a new era ― a period when the most powerful leaders in our government increasingly move to trample on our First Amendment rights. This was the second time within the past 30 days that I have found myself covering the debate surrounding Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s planned reimbursement policy changes affecting limited licensed mental health clinicians.
I’ve written previously about the policy itself. This time, though, something else captured my attention.
It was the people.
Last Friday night’s rally was organized by Caitlin Fleming, a mental health therapist and co-founder of Healer’s Choice, who demonstrated the kind of leadership that rarely makes headlines but often changes communities. She listened as much as she spoke. She created space for others to tell their stories. She reminded those gathered that advocacy is less about anger and more about refusing to become invisible.
At one point, Fleming shared that she lost her former husband to suicide.
Her words carried weight, especially because only days earlier I had written about losing my aunt Geraldine and how grief leaves permanent marks on those left behind. Mental illness, suicide and trauma are not abstract policy debates. Nearly every family carries a story. Every interruption in care has a human face.
That reality echoed through the entire evening.
Mars DeWitt, a limited licensed clinician who previously worked as a teacher, reminded us that change has happened before in Detroit. After addressing the audience, DeWitt told me that they watched the fight for teacher pay, recalling Detroit educators’ successful efforts to improve salaries. “So, I know it’s possible for therapists to fight back in a similar way.… Detroit is one of those inspiring cities in the world because we know how to fight back.”
Their words were less criticism than a declaration of home.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, connected the issue to another community she knows well: veterans.
“Every interruption in treatment increases the risk that a patient, including veterans, falls through the cracks,” she said. “Our veterans should not have to retell their trauma, rebuild our trust or start the therapeutic process from the beginning due to an insurance billing policy.”
Jess Riley of the National Association of Social Workers-Michigan added sobering context. Twenty-five Michigan counties have no psychiatrists. Ten neither have a psychiatrist or psychologist. The Upper Peninsula has no child psychiatrists and no pediatric psychiatric beds.
Whatever one’s position on reimbursement policy, those numbers reveal a behavioral work force already stretched dangerously thin.
Fleming also reminded the audience that communities of color are especially vulnerable to changes in insurance coverage policy because they understand what generational trauma in health care looks like. She cited historical abuses such as the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis. She emphasized that clinical supervision should not be a sign that therapists are somehow viewed as inadequate.
“We want people to be supervised not because they are not quality therapists; it’s the human experience. We should always be working in teams.
Notably, Fleming said Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has not publicly released data estimating how many patients may lose access to their current therapists under the proposed policy. She said representatives from BCBS Michigan were invited to the forum but did not participate.
Regardless of where this debate ultimately ends, something encouraging happened last Friday evening.
Citizens assembled peacefully. They exercised their First Amendment rights. They shared data, personal stories and deeply held convictions. They urged elected officials to listen. They asked a powerful institution to explain itself.
That is not something to fear.
It is something to celebrate.
That’s because healthy democracies depend on citizens who care enough to show up – even if there are only 40 of them standing together in a Detroit park at the end of a long week, refusing to believe their voices don’t matter.
Byron McCauley is a regional columnist for USA Today Co. in Michigan. Email: bmccauley@usatodayco.com; call (513) 504-8915.
(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
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