Watch the Americans get a taste of their own medicine! Directed by Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert. It provides a snapshot of the struggle between labor and … Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★ Premiering at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, the ironically titled American Factory is a considerably absorbing documentary from Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert about a Chinese factory in Ohio inhabiting … American workers will be smiled on if they work cheap – that is, after all, why Chinese goods and workers were beloved by America for so long. American Factory is released on Netflix on 21 August. Review: ‘American Factory’ Philip Jeffery • February 8, 2020 5:00 am. 2019. Source: Sundance Film Festival . American Factory takes a thoughtful -- and troubling -- look at the dynamic between workers and employers in the 21st-century globalized economy. American Factory serves up heaping helpings of humanity bordering on sentimentality, most notably in the warm relationship between Wong, a furnace engineer, and Rob, the Harley-riding, gun-owning furnace supervisor. Movie Review: American Factory (2019) - The Critical Movie Critics In the last few decades, films about workers and the labor movement in American cinema have been few and far between. Why can't American and Chinese industries … ‘There is no magic wand to bring back jobs,” said US president Barack Obama in 2016. Yes! Documentaries such as American Factory, however, can begin to shed light on the problems facing workers in the 21st century world of global capitalism. The feature-length story they tell here is complex, stirring, timely and beautifully shaped, spanning continents as it surveys the past, present and possible future of American labor. “American Factory” follows the story of Fuyao Glass’ takeover of a General Motors factory that closed as a result of the 2008 recession. Watch the Chinese treating American citizens like colonial natives! American Factory could have been made instead as a piece of Michael Moore–style agitprop about the new forms of global capitalism that working-class Americans have to reckon with. American Factory . SHARE. 'American Factory' Review: Work Cultures Clash When A Chinese Company Takes Over A new film chronicles what happens when a Chinese billionaire reopens a former General Motors plant in Ohio. Listen to The Screen Show Tune in for the latest news, interviews and reviews. ‘American Factory’ Review: The New Global Haves and Have-Nots, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/movies/american-factory-review.html, A scene from Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar’s “American Factory.”. American Factory is amazing. Film Review: ‘American Factory’ Dayton-based directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert delve into how cultures clash when a Chinese company attempts to overhaul a shuttered GM plant. It is excruciating when a motto is put up in the factory office: “Marching Forward To Be World Leading Glass Provider” – and none of the Americans can bring themselves to point out to their Chinese overlords that the word “the” is missing. His is just one story in an emotionally and politically trenchant chronicle of capitalism, propaganda, conflicting values and labor rights. The Chinese are also shown having policy meetings about how to deal with their exotic US workforce and a manager is shown calmly saying that it is their responsibility to give the Americans guidance “because we are better than them”. You see the fruits of his endeavors in “American Factory,” in scenes of him relaxing and pontificating. When they go on their instructional trip to China and witness the militaristic shop floor discipline, there are cutaways to their aghast faces, making them look like Karren Brady on The Apprentice when she sees contestants doing something very wrong. American and visiting Chinese workers alike open their homes and hearts, including Wong He, an engaging, quietly melancholic furnace engineer who speaks movingly of his wife and children back in China. “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. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America. In a single day, close to 2,500 employees lost their jobs at just one location on the outskirts of Dayton, Ohio. In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a factory in an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand Americans. “American Factory” takes off two years into the factory’s arrival, as over 1,000 people have been employed by the glass-maker and optimism runs high. American Factory is a case study in cross-cultural miscommunication and national personality clash. Despite having a fascinating story to tell and some illuminating subjects, American Factory comes off as slightly over-zealous, educationally speaking, and is without a manageable sense of moral edification as an observational documentary. American Factory wowed audiences at a special screening at the Whitby Hotel this past Wednesday. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. The site's consensus reads: " American Factory takes a thoughtful – and troubling – look at the dynamic between workers and employers in the 21st-century globalized economy." In 2014, the Chinese auto glass manufacturer Fuyao bought a former General Motors car plant in Dayton, Ohio, that had been closed since 2008 – promising investment and hundreds of new jobs. A documentary looks at what happened when a Chinese company took over a closed General Motors factory in Ohio. Dirs: Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert. The factory in question is far from American. The film shows how this good mood curdled as the workforce realised that to show their gratitude they were expected to conform to the Chinese culture of regimentation and submission, uncomplainingly working six or seven-day weeks, pushing up productivity at all costs and declining to make a fuss about decadent and lazy American indulgences such as lunch breaks and safety precautions. Discomfiting and desperately sad ... American Factory. sales, G.M. An refreshingly fair take of US-Chinese cultural clash, the film’s grander message zooms out to refocus our attention on a more threatening conflict. plant when it closed. Perhaps it is not really a US-versus-China story but the age-old story of capital versus labour, supercharged with a new managerial determination to sweat every last cent from this unreliable human worker before he or she is replaced with a machine. But these are the deals and jobs that we are talking about. By Anthony Kaufman 2019-01-27T14:18:00+00:00. It’s a workplace study from directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert that is absorbing, discomfiting and desperately sad. Barack and Michelle Obama's post-presidency entertainment career began in earnest in 2019. Review: ‘American Factory’ by Emilia Yu February 2, 2020. by Emilia Yu February 2, 2020 0 comment. The Dayton factory remained idle until Fuyao announced it was taking it over, investing millions and hiring hundreds of local workers, numbers it soon increased. The publicity for American Factory has suggested that this is a tragicomic story of a culture clash. Not rated. The film centers on the great expectations, and grimmer realities, that accompany the 2016 reopening of a shuttered GM facility in Ohio by the giant Chinese glass manufacturer Fuyao. We are perpetually presented with the spectacle of the slight, deferential and uniformly clad Chinese workers, snapping to attention and occasionally singing the mournfully determined company song in contrast to the big, sloppy and resentful Americans whose bodies are too big for the hi-vis tabards that they are required to wear on their educational visit to the Fuyao factory in China. What’s important, he says, are Americans’ views toward China and its people. That’s what makes “American Factory” all the more interesting. Today we brought the documentary called 'American Factory' from Netflix. Some of the workers here are affectionate about their Chinese opposite numbers, but this is a sobering documentary in a minor key. This first film in their post-White House careers is an absorbing study of the culture clash in a Chinese-run Ohio car plant, Last modified on Fri 23 Aug 2019 06.36 BST. Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 Louis Proyect Counterpunch.org ‘American Factory’ Review: The New Global Haves and Have-Nots A documentary looks at what happened when a Chinese company took over a closed General Motors factory in Ohio. Read full review Because it is the first film to be released by Higher Ground, the production company formed by Barack and Michelle Obama that signed a highly publicized deal with Netflix, “American Factory” will no doubt find an audience far larger than the typical documentary focusing on the contemporary labor movement. It was a frightening and heartbreaking account of the workers’ precipitous fall from the stability of middle-class life because of forces utterly beyond their control. Some applicants sit and listen stoically; one woman, her hand over her mouth, gently rocks in her seat, tapping out a nervous rhythm as the Fuyao representative delivers his pitch. He recalls that the China of his youth was poor; now he is, according to Forbes, one of “China’s richest” and his hobbies include golfing and collecting art. ‘American Factory’: Film Review | Sundance 2019. There is such animosity brewing between countries, but a lot of it is because of animosity between workers and employees…aka the haves and the have nots. With detail and sweep, interviews and you-are-there visuals, the filmmakers quickly establish a clear, strong narrative line as the new enterprise — Fuyao Glass America — gets off the ground. Both the Chinese and American management complain about production and especially about the American workers who, in turn, seem mainly grateful for a new shot. Some workers are hurt, others are at risk; glass breaks, tempers fray. By Susan Kikuchi. A Chinese company opens a factory in Ohio with culture-clashing results in Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar's documentary, 'American Factory.' The country is on the verge of a full-scale trade war with China, and Donald Trump is being praised by the right for making deals and creating jobs in defiance of that Obama statement. 8/21/19 By Christopher Cross With tensions constantly high about American jobs being available for American workers, there’s something to be mined out of foreign businesses coming in and taking American jobs. Blaming slumping S.U.V. The management’s main concern was to crush any hint of a union. American Factory shies away from a hard partisan line and is able to entertain any number of political interpretations. The company’s hawkish leader, the beady-eyed billionaire Chairman Cao Dewang, arrives at the facility beaming with pride — but it doesn’t take him long to start micromanaging every facet of the plant, leaving his … American Factory is incidentally another example of how “American” as the first word of a title supercharges the movie with irony (American Hustle, American Gangster, American Psycho). we are still stuck in our home. The optimism of the workers is palpable; the access the filmmakers secured remarkable. His frustration can seem amusing, but as his dissatisfaction mounts, the temperature grows colder and management becomes openly hostile. In 2016, Cao opened a division of Fuyao, his global auto-glass manufacturing company, in a shuttered General Motors factory near Dayton, Ohio. 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. The American subsidiary is losing money and Chairman Cao, as he’s called, is not happy. ‘We are better than them’ ... American Factory. Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert present a case study on foreign businesses and how cultures … Fuyao and its chairman Cao Dewang (referred to as “Chairman Cao”) were rewarded with euphoric praise – in a state that had been crushed by unemployment – and more than $6m in subsidies from Ohio state taxpayers. 'American Factory': Sundance Review. American Factory gives some insight into the fight to make that plant a union shop. See them become victims of predatorial capitalism! American unions are of course a very different matter, and Fuyao is shown to ruthlessly intimidate trade unionists. Bognar and Reichert, who shot the movie with several others — the editor is Lindsay Utz — have a great eye for faces and they quickly narrow in on the range of expressions in the room. The movie highlights the attitudes and cultural conflicts between American and Chinese workers. ‘American Factory’ Review: How an East-West Labor Experiment Went South Documentary on Chinese auto-glass company opening a plant in Ohio captures a cross-cultural slow-motion car wreck A job at Fuyao allows her to move into her own apartment, but like everyone else she struggles with the company’s demands. American Factory is a rarity: an acclaimed documentary about workers that’s being widely seen (it’s streaming on Netflix). On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on reviews from 89 critics, with an average of 8.38/10. What they fought for decades trying to keep away has … And working too, of course, always working, including in a luxurious office where a couple of socialist realist paintings show him against the sky like a sleekly updated Mao — an image that the filmmakers linger on, letting its meaning bloom like a hundred flowers. This movie is released at a fraught moment in US politics. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. There are toe-curling culture clash moments. ‘American Factory’ Review: A Cross-Cultural Working-Class Doc, Via ‘The Office’ — Sundance. American Factory a complex tale of class struggle on shifting global terrain; reducing the story to culture clash overlooks the real threat of global corporatism. This could be nothing more than a bridgehead for a new invasion of machines: simply the prelude to a new era of automation in which the idea of a culture clash will be less meaningful. Bognar and Reichert spent a number of years making “American Factory,” a commitment that’s evident in its layered storytelling and the trust they earned. Maybe. “The most important thing is not how much money we earn,” the Chinese billionaire Cao Dewang says in “American Factory” soon before we see him on a private jet. It’s a film rich in both pathos and bathos, with moments of unintended comedy and surprising self-awareness courtesy of Fuyao’s founder … “American Factory” opens with a brief, teary look back at the plant’s closing that sketches in the past and foreshadows the difficult times ahead. Commenting has been disabled at this time but you can still. American Factory review – a sobering documentary by the Obamas This first film in their post-White House careers is an absorbing study of the culture clash in … The work is emotionally instructive but thematically unfocused. Read critic reviews It’s a shocking exchange — only the Chinese manager appears concerned that they’re on camera — simply because of the openness of the antagonism toward the company’s own labor force. By the time the documentary shifts to China, for a visit by American managers to the Fuyao mother ship, it has become clear that something will have to give. For viewers who have never peered inside a Chinese factory, these scenes — with their singalongs, team-building exercises and extravagant pageants — may seem strange or perhaps a gung-ho variation on contemporary corporate management practice (cue the next Apple confab). American Factory is a documentary that showcases the problems facing workers all over the world. The veteran filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, who are a couple and live outside of Dayton, documented the G.M. Now he has returned to this sombre realist theme with the first documentary feature in his post-presidential career as a film producer (with Michelle Obama) for Netflix, under the banner of their company Higher Ground Productions. It’s these men and women — Timi Jernigan, John Crane, Shawnea Rosser, Robert Allen and so many others — whose optimism and disappointment give the movie its emotional through-line and whose stories stand in contrast to Cao’s own self-made tale. A forklift operator named Jill Lamantia is living in her sister’s basement when we first meet her. How you doin? They included the image of the last truck rolling off the line in their 2009 short, “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant.” That crystallizing image also appears in “American Factory,” which revisits the plant six years later. Read full review Filmed with extraordinary attention to environmental detail and revealing human interactions, American Factory is that rare documentary that’s not only compelling in its content but a profound sensory pleasure. had closed the plant — known as the General Motors Moraine Assembly Plant — in December 2008, throwing thousands out of work the same month the American government began a multibillion dollar bailout of the auto industry. Very interesting look on the inside of an American factory run by a Chinese company, and it’s pretty much as divisive as you’d think. As the factory ramps up, optimism gives way to unease, dissent and fear. Laugh at the pathetic fat wimps running around the factory trying to meet the demands of their Chinese bosses! There is a major diplomatic incident at the opening ceremony when the Democratic Ohio state senator Sherrod Brown refers to the desirability of unions in his speech, to the displeasure of the Chinese management. And so American Factory is only nominally a film about America. (This is the first movie that Barack and Michelle Obama’s company Higher Ground Productions is releasing with Netflix.). The academy … It is in China that we learn that unions there are not loathed, because they are an arm of the communist state, and the thought of them objecting to or impeding the management of a state-sanctioned company is unthinkable. I like that in the case of the film, both Chinese and American workers on the grassroots level found a kinship … US. Hello coucou! With Junming 'Jimmy' Wang, Robert Allen, Sherrod Brown, Dave Burrows. When the factory re-opened, poised to be the new headquarters of the Chinese company, a culture clash surrounding the … Analysis and Review of Netflix’s ‘American Factory’. The story proper begins in 2015 amid the optimistic bustle of new beginnings, including a rah-rah Fuyao presentation for American job seekers. 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