Ostensibly
about VFA startup apprenticeships, Generation
is just as much a promotional film for the Detroit Chamber of Commerce. All
of the featured startups are located in the former Motor City, where they are helping
to power its comeback, at least according to Wade & Houser’s narrative. Of
course, the volume of abandoned houses bought sight unseen through repossession
auctions helps drive the initial business of Castle, a remote property management
startup co-founded by Max Nussenbaum. Castle shares office space with Brian
Rudolph’s Banza, a gluten-free chickpea pasta company, but the actual
manufacturing happens in a small plant north of the city. Details, details.
To
give credit where credit is due, Nussenbaum and Rudolph have legitimately inspiring
success stories to tell. However, Generation’s
most compelling POV figure is unquestionably Labib Rahman, the VFA fellow placed
at tech startup Mason. Expecting his Muslim parents will disown him when they
learn he is no longer religious, Rahman feels intense pressure to succeed while
they are still on speaking terms, but his experiences at Mason are decidedly mixed.
Occasionally,
Wade & Houser also check in with Kate Catlin at tech startup Detroit Labs,
but apparently what they do is so boring she mostly spends her time organizing
Women Rising, an organization to promote woman-to-woman mentoring in the
technology sector, which seems to practice empowerment through cocktail
parties. The filmmakers spend more time with Dextina Booker, an associate with
a private grant development agency, but she can never discuss any of her work
due to confidentiality agreements, so mainly she just bikes around taking stock
of the new and improved Detroit.
