Flaming cars and frightening tanks, pensive and defiant black men and terrifying armed officers, and John Conyers Jr. standing on a car shouting over the rubble.

The striking murals spanning downtown buildings aren’t cookie-cutter “Detroit” movie posters; they are special commissions by up-and-coming local artists meant to continue the conversation the movie starts.

Annapurna Pictures partnered with Playground Detroit, a creative agency and gallery, and Brooklyn Outdoor, an outdoor advertising agency, to bring a brand-new style of movie advertisement — by Detroiters for Detroiters — to promote community engagement. The vinyl wall-scapes and one mural went up early in July in preparation for the world premiere of “Detroit” on Tuesday at the Fox Theatre, where the art was on display.

Playground Detroit co-founder Paulina Petkoski said she and her partner, Samantha Bankle Schefman, opted to work with emerging artists in their 20s and 30s who live and work in Detroit and have a family history here, rather than well-established artists.

“It’s a new genre of movie promotion,” Petkoski said. “We don’t even know what to call it. They’re doing promotion nationwide, but this is exclusive to the city.”

The artists watched the movie and had one week and total creative freedom to turn around art the film inspired. For Petkoski, the art is so emotionally charged because they had a short time to process their emotions after the movie.

“The murals certainly reflect a desire to have a conversation about the events,” said Rebecca Salminen Witt, Detroit Historical Society Chief Development and Communications officer, in a statement.

The building-sized paintings depict the police brutality “Detroit” addresses, and together, the movie and the paintings open the conversation to include Detroiters, the artists, filmmakers and Detroit Police Department.

One of Marlo Broughton’s murals frames a Vietnam veteran (played by Anthony Mackie) with his hands against the wall between the shoulders of policemen. The hands are surrounded in red, an allusion to being caught “red-handed.”

Broughton, 30, drew parallels between the scene and today. “We’re living it today and we also lived it then, but on different levels,” Broughton said. “It goes full circle.”

Sydney G. James, 38, said she knew she wanted to illustrate the terror black people felt from the police. The Conant Gardens native submitted two designs: One shows menacing police officers in riot gear facing a defenseless black man, while the other depicts two main characters superimposed on a background of silhouettes of tanks and running citizens.

“When I say they terrorized the city, I mean that, they terrorized black people,” James said.

Only the second design is featured downtown, but Petkoski confirmed the first was on display at the Tuesday evening premiere.

An independent artist in Detroit since 2011, her murals of red and yellow dancers are already featured downtown, but these are her first billboards.

“I really appreciate the art campaign because I think Detroiters forget, because we live it every day, how important this city is or was and still is,” Petkoski said. “I feel like this film will be a reminder. Some legislation did change. Now, we do have police officers that reflect the community they are serving.”

Nic Notion, 34, had already depicted modern riots in a 4-foot-by 4-foot mural when he was commissioned.

In his simple black, white and red mural, a man stands on a car with chaos in the background. He revealed, however, that the man is U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, who stood on top of a car when the riots began, quelling an angry crowd of African-American Detroiters, and the car is a Dodge Coronet, the then-model of the police car that figures heavily in the movie.

Notion said his father and his aunts and uncles on his father’s side were Highland Park residents who watched the tanks roll down the streets where they normally hung out. Even his mother’s family, who lived in Southfield, made preparations in case the violence spread.

“My art is gritty and sexy, like Detroit,” Notion said. “You can look at it one way, you can look at it another way, just like Detroit. I try to use unorthodox methods in paintings, just like you may have to do in Detroit. It’s about survival, it’s about love, it’s about standing for something, it’s about hard working. Some people still carry that, you know?”

Detroit, unlike other big cities, isn’t sterile — yet, Notion said. His art captures the little bit of craziness then, as well as now.

“I like truth,” he said, simply. “This is a crazy time in a crazy world: You might see crazy stuff going on, but that’s OK. Just to sterilize one area, that doesn’t help anybody, that doesn’t help my people.”

Jacx Schanes, 33, who always introduces herself as a Detroit artist, took her emotions from the movie out on her canvas through creating a frenetic, colorful, expressionist vinyl wall-scape.

“I was throwing paint, taking any color. It’s hard to explain how the art comes out, but it just came out,” Schanes said.

The West Bloomfield native said bouncing from Oakland, California, to Chicago to London only reinforced her Detroiter identity.

“My family is very rooted here, they’ve always been extremely Detroit-oriented and wanted me here, too, and I get it now,” she said. “It’s part of us.”

In her experience, the movie and the 50th anniversary have chipped away some of the reticence Detroiters had talking about their experiences, as well as educated a new generation about the important events that transpired. For example, she learned her father lived on 12th Street during the riots.

Upon seeing her murals, people exclaimed “I didn’t know there were tanks here!”

As a Detroiter examining this critical moment in history brings Schanes to the limits of her vocabulary.

“It’s hard to find the words, that’s why I paint,” Schanes said.

■ Detroit artist Marlo Broughton’s billboards of the Vietnam veteran caught “red-handed” and John Boyega superimposed on a background of storefronts can be seen on two sides of the Michigan Theater Building at Grand River and Bagley in Detroit.

■ Detroit artist Jacx’s three-part vinyl wrap billboards of the Algiers Motel can be seen at Park Avenue and the Fisher Freeway Service Drive.

■ Sydney G. James’s vinyl wraps of Algee Smith and Jacob Latimore can be seen at Clifford and Washington Boulevard, and Washington Boulevard and Congress across from Cobo Center.

■ Nic Notion’s mural of U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. standing on a Dodge Coronet can be seen on Russell Street near Eastern Market.

Featured article image on PLAYGROUNDDETROIT.COM, photo credit, Lamar Landers,

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