The Post Industrial City

In relation to post-industrial environment, Keeling discusses Set it Off, directed by F. Gary Gray, in her article, "What's Up with That? She Don't Talk: Set it Offs Black Lesbian Butch Femme." Keeling coins the term in relation to urban spaces in gangsta films. "Cleo cannot see herself in a life outside of the one she lives in the postindustrial city that defines and restrains her. Cleo's self-identification as 'belonging' in the hood, in addition to other elements of her characterization, allows her to be recognized as a representative of the ghettocentric worldview expressed in gangsta rap." (Keeling, 124) As we discussed in class, space in relation to the post-industrial city involves the shift from manufacturing to tele-communications and de-industrialization. (Hannabach, 6/9) These post-industrial spaces seem to vanish from the public eye post outsourcing and manufacturing in the transnational environment and economy. (Hannabach 6/9) Set it Off analyses and questions what happens to these spaces and how societies cope once the factories that held them up, close down. The post-industrial concept is seen through out the film, Set it Off, in terms of plot, and aesthetics. Within the plot, the post-industrial city is identifiable in the location and setting of the film. The four main characters live in the projects of LA shoulder to shoulder with an overarching manufacturing plant that closed down. Queen Latifa's character mentions the plant and how they could have earned a decent amount of money working there if it wasn't shut down, as the characters all gaze at the plant longing for what it had provided in the past. This moment in the film pushes forth their eagerness to make fast money and start robbing banks since the option on the other end of the spectrum is no longer one. The concept of post-industrialization in turn, creates the inner workings of the story line based on the options of the four main characters. Visually, the post-industrial city is represented by images of the manufacturing plant that shadows over their hood every day. As well as the urban setting and importance placed on cars through car culture and industrial capitalism. (Hannabach 6/9) The characters stare at the manufacturing plant as an image of a life they cannot reach and a feeling of being trapped follows as Stoney expresses through out the film. Auditorily, the post-industrial image is described through the expressions of the four main characters being defined as "nothing but a hood rat" as Cleo states and Keeling mentions in her article. The environment of these characters pushes them down and in terms of societal class and racial constructions. The clip provided is from Set it Off and is a key moment both auditorily and visually regarding the post-industrial city and the four main characters place and situation within it. The post-industrial city produces societal classes in that there are groups of people that have freedom and groups of people that feel caged. The environment of industrial capitalism and post manufacturing leaves the classes that were in direct relationship with the manufacturing plants out in the cold in a sort of out with the old in with the new economy in which certain classes suffer such as those in the projects of LA.