American Factory

Watch: American Factory

Unrated

11/16/20191h 50m

Premiere Release (US)

~ Cultures collide. Hope survives. ~

Overview:

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

Director:

Julia Reichert

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

factory worker
culture clash
ohio
chinese
american
blue collar worker
manufacturing plant
labor rights

Cast

Junming 'Jimmy' Wang

~ as ~

Self - Vice President, Fuyao

Sherrod Brown

~ as ~

Self - U.S. Senator, Ohio

Dave Burrows

~ as ~

Self - Vice President, Fuyao Glass America

John Gauthier

~ as ~

Self - President, Fuyao Glass America

Rob Haerr

~ as ~

Self - Furnace Supervisor

Cynthia Harper

~ as ~

Self - Lamination Specialist

Wong He

~ as ~

Self - Furance Engineer

Jill Lamantia

~ as ~

Self - Forklift Operator

Jeff Daochuan Liu

~ as ~

Self - President, Fuyao Glass America

Shawnea Rosser

~ as ~

Self - Glass Inspector

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

r
rsanek
Written 4 year(s) ago
8
You always read about "cultural differences" as being something that must be overcome when dealing with international projects, but that language always felt so abstract to me; if anything, it seemed like more of an excuse as to why things might be delayed rather than a real problem. This doc did a great job of telling the story of what that concept really means in practice. American Factory shows you how much friction is created due to the incongruity in cultural ideas about work ethic, personal freedoms, power, and process. I think that was the highlight of the story for me.

For me as an American, there were also feelings of frustration about having a country that doesn't have an answer for these people; their life goes from making $29 working for a US company, to making $12 for a Chinese company. The anti-labor-organizing that we see from Fuyao in the film isn't even unique to this being a China-based company; our home-grown Amazon does a pretty good job of hiring "labor relations" firms to weed out union organizing. I find myself agreeing with one of the speakers at a UAW event captured in the film: we've allowed our country to become one where the rich can exploit the poor, and it would be pretty cool to take it back.