Content warning for racist violence and police brutality. 

‍Detroit Will Breathe (2021) is an American documentary short directed by filmmaker Kate Levy, where we are held witness to the immediate social aftermath in Southeast Michigan of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in the summer of 2020. Following the formation of the titular movement, the film documents the City of Detroit’s violent crackdown on anti-police brutality protests, unfolding through the street-level view of Detroit Will Breathe organizers and the cameras that capture the very violence they are protesting against.

Detroit Will Breathe (DWB) is a militant youth organization that, like the rest of the Black Lives Matter movement, fights for Black liberation and actively resists racism and the state apparatus that “lynches and brutalizes Black and oppressed people,” according to their political code.

The documentary that pieces this footage, livestreams, and phone videos together to illustrate protests and demonstrations being disrupted by police violence after a successful suit that saw the legal discovery of police body cam footage. The film depicts graphic use of excessive force including police cars driving into protestors, organizers being restrained in fatal chokeholds, and the flagrant use of chemical agents like tear gas and pepper spray. At one point, an officer casually remarks that “I came over with 12 cans of spray and fucked everyone up.”

A deeply disturbing trend this short film reveals is the cavalier attitude of the Detroit Police Department. Officers teem with excitement before they hit the streets in riot gear, chattering and bragging about beating protestors. After one particular counter-action, an officer boasts about beating a pregnant woman, admonishing her for her presence at the demonstration. This piece of dialogue is juxtaposed with police violently breaking up a peaceful march in a residential area. 

Detroit Will Breathe depicts police violence in a way that deeply unsettles the viewer. The violence we see in this movie is very real, and is unfortunately a part of the reality of being a Black person in North America, especially in the United States. The organizers featured in this film are shown to be illegally subjugated by police, yet their comment and contextualization after the fact explains how this violence is normalized for Black communities due to their already having been historically and presently overpoliced. 

The retaliation of the City of Detroit against its own citizens is not new, especially during the summer these protests and subsequent crackdowns took place. What is shown in Detroit Will Breathe is a symptom of a deeper issue, a broken system that arrests over 400 protestors, injures 260 of them, and only charges one police officer.

As we become more desensitized to the violence we encounter in global mass media, it is important to remember that films and shorts like Detroit Will Breathe reveal the truth about our systems and our way of life. We must reckon with not only manifestations of racism, but our complacency in racism through normalizing police violence.

The 2024 ReFrame Festival runs from January 25th-February 4th. A list of films, tickets to events and screenings, and more information can be found on the Festival Website.