Burn: One Year on the Front Lines of the Battle to Save Detroit (2014)

Director: Tom Putnam & Brenna Sanchez 
Run Time: 86 min. 
Call Number: HD8039.F52 U524 2014

"As the city’s population declined to about 700,000 today from 1.85 million in 1950, abandoned houses, some of which have been taken over by squatters, serve as targets for arsonists who, according to one talking head, set fires for three reasons: 'profit, revenge and kicks.' The city has 80,000 vacant structures, of which only 3,000 are torn down each year. The city’s average of 30 fires a day is one of the highest rates in the nation. The movie includes several scenes of infernos being battled inside buildings on the verge of collapse and filmed by cameras attached to the firefighters’ helmets." 
—Stephen Holden, New York Times

Detropia (2013)

Directors: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Run Time: 91 min.

“In 1930 Detroit was the fastest growing city in the world. Today it’s the fastest-shrinking city, with families fleeing every day. That’s one of the sobering facts shared in Detropia, the powerful 2012 documentary about the once-thriving Motor City. Though the economy has affected all of us, what has happened to Detroit is particularly dramatic and shocking.”
– Whitney Matheson, USA Today, May 24, 2013