American Factory

{{Infobox film

| name = American Factory

| image = American Factory poster.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Film poster

| native_name = {{Infobox Chinese/Chinese|child=yes|hide=no|header=none

| s = 美国工厂

| t = 美國工廠

| p = Měiguó Gōngchǎng

}}

| director = {{Plainlist|

}}

| producer = {{Plainlist|

Steven Bognar
Julia Reichert
Jeff Reichert
Julie Parker Benello

}}

| writer =

| starring =

| music = Chad Cannon

| cinematography = {{Plainlist|

Steven Bognar
Aubrey Keith
Jeff Reichert
Julia Reichert
Erick Stoll

}}

| editing = Lindsay Utz

| studio = {{Plainlist|

}}

| distributor = Netflix

| released = {{Film date|2019|1|25|Sundance|2019|8|21|United States}}

| runtime = 110 minutes

| country = United States

| language = {{Plainlist|

English
Mandarin

}}

| budget =

| gross =

}}

American Factory ({{Lang-zh|c=美国工厂}}) is a 2019 American documentary film directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, about Chinese company Fuyao's factory in Moraine, a city near Dayton, Ohio, that occupies Moraine Assembly, a shuttered General Motors plant. The film had its festival premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. It is distributed by Netflix, and is the first film acquired by Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground Productions.{{cite news|url=https://deadline.com/2019/02/american-factory-netflix-sundance-film-festival-documentary-deal-steven-bognar-julia-reichert-1202547822/|title=Netflix Acquiring Sundance Documentary 'American Factory'|last=Fleming|first=Mike Jr.|date=February 1, 2019|publisher=Deadline Hollywood|access-date=February 11, 2019|archive-date=December 5, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205072038/https://deadline.com/2019/02/american-factory-netflix-sundance-film-festival-documentary-deal-steven-bognar-julia-reichert-1202547822/|url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/2019/08/21/753014781/american-factory-examines-when-a-chinese-company-takes-over-a-ohio-factory |title='American Factory': When A Chinese Company Takes Over An Ohio Factory |date=August 21, 2019 |publisher=NPR |access-date=August 22, 2019 |archive-date=December 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205072103/https://www.npr.org/2019/08/21/753014781/american-factory-examines-when-a-chinese-company-takes-over-a-ohio-factory |url-status=live }}{{r|CNN 2020/01/13}} At the 92nd Academy Awards, American Factory won the award for Best Documentary Feature.{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF4ytC3-M3g |title="American Factory" wins Best Documentary Feature - Oscars on YouTube |website=YouTube |date=March 11, 2020 |access-date=March 18, 2020 |archive-date=December 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205073530/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF4ytC3-M3g |url-status=live }}

Synopsis

In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a factory in an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America.

Production

Filmed between February 2015 and the end of 2017, Reichert and Bognar were granted filming access by Fuyao at both their Ohio and Chinese plant locations. They were inspired to make this film as the events they aimed to depict were taking place in the same Moraine Assembly plant once occupied by General Motors, which was the central topic of their 2009 Oscar-nominated documentary short The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/8/21/20812012/american-factory-interview-netflix-reichert-bognar|title=Work is going global. American Factory's directors explain how they captured its challenges.|last=Wilkinson|first=Alissa|date=August 21, 2019|website=Vox|language=en|access-date=December 15, 2019|archive-date=December 5, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205072123/https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/8/21/20812012/american-factory-interview-netflix-reichert-bognar|url-status=live}}

The Mandarin Chinese language portions of the film were facilitated by the inclusion of two Chinese filmmakers, Yiqian Zhang and Mijie Li, one or both of whom would travel to Ohio monthly. The directors credit these two as essential in providing a connection to the Chinese subjects depicted in the film.

= Style =

The filmmakers implemented a fly-on-the-wall documentary filmmaking approach, in which no dialogue external to the subjects of the film is included, and the sounds of the factory and the dialogue of the workers is prioritized. Lavalier microphones were employed to effectively balance worker dialogue amid noise emanating from the factory machinery. The voice-over narration provided by the factory workers was often recorded at their respective homes, independently from the factory setting. According to Bognar, implementing the film's narration in this way created an effect of depicting a worker's inner monologue.

Reception

= Critical response =

{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|95|8.3|93|American Factory takes a thoughtful -- and troubling -- look at the dynamic between workers and employers in the 21st-century globalized economy.|ref=yes|access-date=June 21, 2023}} {{Metacritic film prose|86|23|ref=yes|access-date=June 21, 2023}}

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times stated: "American Factory is political without being self-servingly didactic or strident, connecting the sociopolitical dots intelligently, sometimes with the help of a stirring score from Chad Cannon that evokes Aaron Copland. The filmmakers don't villainize anyone, though a few participants come awfully close to twirling waxed mustaches, like an American manager who jokes to a Chinese colleague that it would be a good idea to duct-tape the mouths of talky American workers."{{cite news|last=Dargis|first=Manohla|date=August 20, 2019|title='American Factory' Review: The New Global Haves and Have-Nots|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/movies/american-factory-review.html|url-status=live|work=The New York Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230525005522/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/movies/american-factory-review.html|archive-date=May 25, 2023|access-date=June 21, 2023}} David Edelstein of New York magazine wrote: "It's a great, expansive, deeply humanist work, angry but empathetic to its core. It gestures toward the end of the working world we know – and to the rise of the machines."{{cite web |date= August 23, 2019 |author= David Edelstein |author-link= David Edelstein |title= The Obamas' Netflix Doc American Factory Gestures Toward the End of the Working World |url= https://www.vulture.com/2019/08/american-factory-review-obamas-netflix-doc-is-eye-opening.html |website= Vulture.com |publisher= New York Magazine |access-date= September 5, 2019 |archive-date= December 5, 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201205072258/https://www.vulture.com/2019/08/american-factory-review-obamas-netflix-doc-is-eye-opening.html |url-status= live }}

Eric Kohn of IndieWire described the film as "A fascinating tragicomedy about the incompatibility of American and Chinese industries."{{cite news|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2019/01/american-factory-review-sundance-1202038438/|title=American Factory' Review: A Cross-Cultural Working-Class Doc, Via 'The Office' – Sundance|last=Kohn|first=Eric|date=January 26, 2019|publisher=IndieWire|access-date=February 11, 2019|archive-date=December 5, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205072321/https://www.indiewire.com/2019/01/american-factory-review-sundance-1202038438/|url-status=live}}

Awards

The film won Best Documentary Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards.{{cite news|last=Gonzalez|first=Sandra|date=February 9, 2020|title=Obama-backed documentary 'American Factory' wins Oscar|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/09/entertainment/american-factory-oscars/index.html|url-status=live|work=CNN|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210224637/https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/02/09/entertainment/american-factory-oscars/index.html|archive-date=February 10, 2023|access-date=June 22, 2023}}{{cite news|last=Perez|first=Lexy|date=February 9, 2020|title='American Factory' Co-Director, Battling Cancer, Accepts Win for Best Documentary Feature|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/american-factory-director-battling-cancer-accepts-win-documentary-feature-1277378/|url-status=live|work=The Hollywood Reporter|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418183513/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/american-factory-director-battling-cancer-accepts-win-documentary-feature-1277378/amp/|archive-date=April 18, 2023|access-date=June 22, 2023}} It received three nominations at the 72nd Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, winning Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program for Bognar and Reichert.{{cite news|last=Florence Jr.|first=Russell|date=September 15, 2020|title=Oscar-winning 'American Factory' directors win Emmy|url=https://www.daytondailynews.com/entertainment/oscar-winning-american-factory-directors-win-emmy/F2XVF5MTZZEXJEKX245OFOH7GY/|url-status=live|work=Dayton Daily News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201005054202/https://www.daytondailynews.com/entertainment/oscar-winning-american-factory-directors-win-emmy/F2XVF5MTZZEXJEKX245OFOH7GY/|archive-date=October 5, 2020|access-date=June 22, 2023}}{{cite news|last=Haylock|first=Zoe|date=September 15, 2020|title=All the Winners From Night One of the Creative Arts Emmys|url=https://www.vulture.com/2020/09/creative-arts-emmys-2020-winners.html|url-status=live|work=Vulture|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221225092533/https://www.vulture.com/2020/09/creative-arts-emmys-2020-winners.html|archive-date=December 25, 2022|access-date=June 22, 2023}}

References

{{Reflist|refs=

{{Cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/13/entertainment/barack-and-michelle-obama-oscars/index.html|title=Barack and Michelle Obama's production company scores first Oscar nomination|first=Sandra|last=Gonzalez|work=CNN|access-date=January 14, 2020|archive-date=January 20, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200120221603/https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/13/entertainment/barack-and-michelle-obama-oscars/index.html|url-status=live}}

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