arts & life
film

Detroit Dreamin'

Michael Bolton's tribute

to our fair city premiered

with a red-carpet celebration.

Stacy Gittleman I Contributing Writer

I

t's hard to believe that Grammy Award-
winning recording artist Michael Bolton is
from Connecticut — and not from Detroit.
During his 30-year career, Bolton has literally
sung the praises of Motown all over the globe.
Now, he is so confident that this city is on the
"tipping point of greatness" that he is in the
final phases of releasing a $400,000 full-length
documentary he personally financed, which
previewed at an exclusive sneak peek event last
week at Detroit's Fox Theatre and was attended
by some of the city's most prominent leaders,
businesspeople and entertainers.
Bolton, 62, walked the red carpet at the Fox
on Friday, Oct. 2, for the premiere of Gotta Keep

Dreamin: Detroit's 21st Century Renaissance,
drawing a crowd of several hundred, including
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, U.S. Sen. Debbie
Stabenow and U.S. Rep. John Conyers, along
with Chris Ilitch and Quicken Loans CEO Dan
Gilbert.
Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom
emceed a panel of the film's stars before Martha
Reeves closed out the night with a surprise per-
formance of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"
with Bolton.
In addition to featuring Gilbert's contri-
butions to the city's comeback, the movie
highlights a number of big names, including
John Varvatos, Francis Ford Coppola, Alice
Cooper, Jerry Bruckheimer and more, as
well as several young Jewish entrepreneurs
— such as Jacob Cohen, partner at Detroit
Venture Partners, who participated in Jewish

ABOVE: Michael Bolton walks

the red carpet at the Fox Theatre.

RIGHT: Left to right: Bolton, Dan

Gilbert, Melissa Price and emcee

Mitch Albom FAR RIGHT: Bolton

with Trudie and Dennis Archer

44 October 15 •2015

Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's inaugural
Entrepreneurial Mission to Israel last April, and
dPOP CEO Melissa Price.
Price, who designs interior spaces for
new businesses within once-decaying build-
ings in Detroit's rapidly growing downtown,
spoke onstage about her recent move into a
Downtown Detroit apartment and the "endless"
places to dine and explore within walking dis-
tance of where she lives.
"There is an emerging belief system taking
hold in Detroit that anything is possible Price
said.
Gilbert said Detroit's history and its come-
back "lies in the intersection of muscle and
brains" of its determined youthful population
and the willingness of older, established busi-
nesses to embrace and understand the culture
of a digitally driven new generation.
"We can no longer operate with the old ways
of thinking, that this is the way things have
always been done Gilbert said. "We need to
build corporate cultures that attract young tal-
ent. It is a culture that is proving that ideas,
thoughts and beliefs are greater than money
when it comes to building businesses."
Bolton, 62, was born and raised in a middle-
class Jewish home in 1950s New Haven, Conn.,
where he was taught by his family "not to hate
even though his own family at times faced
discrimination as Jews. His connection to his
Jewish heritage lies not in practice but in fond
memories of his Ukrainian-born grandparents,
who taught him to believe in the American
dream.
"My grandparents came to America with
nothing more than the confidence and belief
that they could provide a better life for their
children:' Bolton said at a press conference
at the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit the day
before the premiere. "That is the American
dream, and that dream is still alive right here in
Detroit."

What truly inspired Bolton to make this
documentary was his lifelong love of Motown
music — he opened for Detroit's own Bob Seger
in his early years and, in 2013, he recorded an
album of Motown covers, Ain't No Mountain
High Enough. Recently, he discovered Hitsville
U.S.A., the nickname given to Motown studios'
first headquarters, and an introduction to
Gilbert by Bedrock Real Estate Services' Detroit
Ambassador Bruce Schwartz helped seal the
deal.
Bolton, who has had his share of uncom-
plimentary press, knows the sting of being
portrayed in a bad light by the media. His film
comes on the heels of much negative national
coverage about Detroit, including the 2012
documentary Detropia, the book Detroit: The
American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff (Penguin
Books) and national coverage of the city's 2013
bankruptcy.
"When the media wants to cover Detroit,
they cannot resist the bloodiest part — the
blight and the decay — and I know how pain-
ful that can be Bolton said. "This film project
represents the greatness and the dignity of the
people of Detroit. In the three years since I
started this project, more people with no roots
in Detroit are increasingly interested in all the
good that is happening here
Bolton is back in Los Angeles making final
edits with 2929 Entertainment to meet the
deadline to distribute the film for the 2016 film
festival circuit. But this is not his last trip to
Detroit, not by a long shot.
"I do not have a kind of house-flipper,
short-term relationship with Detroit:' he said.
"The people I have met who helped me make
this film are so inspiring. I hope this film has
a long-lasting afterlife, and I intend to make it
reach as many people as possible to show off
the town that keeps getting better every time I
come back:' *