Cowabunga ya’ll. That flight across the pond to Poland was a piece of cake, even had a few free beers en route and talked with a friendly German fella that loves the Isley Brothers. Gotta love Lufthansa for that.

Things are well here in Lodz. Steven (the director of photography for the film) and I have been getting intensely assimilated to life in the city for the past 24 hours or so and quite frankly, it’s been amazing. Amazing probably because it’s just fun being immersed in a new place with tour guides that are intensely involved in the city, and amazing because this place is shockingly similar to Detroit in a lot of ways.

The industrial past in Lodz is probably the most glaring similarity. It started as early as 1820 and catapulted Lodz from a small village to a booming metropolis in less than 40 years. Entrepreneurs like Izrael Pozanski and Karol Scheibler made fortunes with factories a la Henry Ford and the automobile in Detroit. The mills provided jobs, housing and kept the economy running smoothly until 1990. Today, some of these factories have been re-purposed in to cultural destinations (like Manufaktura) or office space, but many of them have been left for dead in ways that many of Detroit’s buildings are vacant. We went inside a couple of the old ones and it looked and felt just exactly like a scene from home.

The reason we are here, and what will eventually make the film we are making very interesting, is the presence of people that still believe in the town and are pushing it forward in beautiful ways. Certainly all hope is not lost and a lot of people are pushing the city forward in ways that are similar and very different to Detroit. There are companies in Lodz innovating with things like mobile technology, young artists starting fashion lines and retail shops and developers that are using Lodz’ historical fabric as a context to innovate on a new level. They even have crepe shops like Good Girls Go to Paris. And the truth is, we’ve only touched the surface in the 24 hours we’ve been here so far.

So stay tuned, there are plenty of updates to come. Our first interview for the film is tomorrow morning!