American Factory: Difference between revisions

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

| simplifieds = 美国工厂

| traditionalt = 美國工廠

| pinyinp = Měiguó Gōngchǎng

'''''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 Group|Fuyao]]'s factory in [[Moraine, Ohio|Moraine]], a city near [[Dayton, Ohio|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 Obama|Barack]] and [[Michelle Obama]]'s production company, [[Higher Ground Productions]].<ref name="DeadlineHollywood">{{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}}</ref><ref name="HigherGroundProductions">{{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 }}</ref>{{r|CNN 2020/01/13}} It won an [[Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature]].<ref>[{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF4ytC3-M3g |title="American Factory" wins Best Documentary Feature - Oscars on YouTube] |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 }}</ref>

Filmed from February 2015 until the end of 2017, Reichert and Bognar were granted filming access by [[Fuyao Group|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]].''<ref name="auto">{{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’sFactory'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}}</ref>

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.<ref name="auto">{{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 17, 2019}}</ref>

The filmmakers implemented a [[Fly on the wall|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. In order to make focal such an audio/visual approach, the filmmakers implemented the use of [[lavalier microphone]]s to effectively balance worker dialogue amid noise emanating from the factory's 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 to createcreated an effect of depicting a worker's [[Inner Monologue|inner monologue]].<ref name="auto"/>

[[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."<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{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 }}</ref>

Eric Kohn at ''[[IndieWire]]'' described it as "A fascinating tragicomedy about the incompatibility of American and Chinese industries."<ref name="Kohn">{{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}}</ref>

*''[[Detropia]]'' - 2012 documentary focused on the decline of the economy of Detroit due to long-term changes in the automobile industry

<ref name="CNN 2020/01/13">{{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}}</ref>

[[Category:AmericanPrimetime filmsEmmy Award-winning broadcasts]]

[[Category:EnglishChinese-language American films]]

[[Category:Sundance Film Festival award-winning winnersfilms]]