Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersIndependent Spirit AwardsWomen's History MonthSXSWSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

American Factory

  • 2019
  • TV-14
  • 1h 50m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
23K
YOUR RATING
American Factory (2019)
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.
Play trailer2:31
2 Videos
45 Photos
Documentary

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 hi... Read allIn 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.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.

  • Directors
    • Steven Bognar
    • Julia Reichert
  • Stars
    • Junming 'Jimmy' Wang
    • Robert Allen
    • Sherrod Brown
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.4/10
    23K
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Steven Bognar
      • Julia Reichert
    • Stars
      • Junming 'Jimmy' Wang
      • Robert Allen
      • Sherrod Brown
    • 174User reviews
    • 63Critic reviews
    • 86Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 Oscar
      • 19 wins & 50 nominations total

    Videos2

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:31
    Watch Official Trailer
    American Factory: A Short Conversation With The Obamas (Featurette)
    Featurette 2:58
    Watch American Factory: A Short Conversation With The Obamas (Featurette)

    Photos45

    American Factory (2019)
    American Factory (2019)
    Rob Haerr and Wong He in American Factory (2019)
    Steven Bognar at an event for The Oscars (2020)
    Julia Reichert and Jeff Reichert at an event for The Oscars (2020)
    Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert at an event for The Oscars (2020)
    Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, and Jeff Reichert at an event for The Oscars (2020)
    Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert at an event for The Oscars (2020)
    Julia Reichert at an event for The Oscars (2020)
    Julia Reichert at an event for American Factory (2019)
    Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert at an event for American Factory (2019)
    Robert Allen at an event for American Factory (2019)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Junming 'Jimmy' Wang
    Junming 'Jimmy' Wang
    • Self - Vice President, Fuyao
    Robert Allen
    Robert Allen
    • Self - Furnace Off-Loader
    • (as Bobby)
    Sherrod Brown
    Sherrod Brown
    • Self - U.S. Senator, Ohio
    Dave Burrows
    Dave Burrows
    • Self - Vice President, Fuyao Glass America
    Dawnetta Cantrell
    • Self
    Lori Cochran
    • Self
    Austin Cole
    Austin Cole
    • Self - Tempering Backlight Production Supervisor
    John Crane
    John Crane
    • Self - Fuyao Safety Director
    John Gauthier
    • Self - President, Fuyao Glass America
    Rob Haerr
    Rob Haerr
    • Self - Furnace Supervisor
    Cynthia Harper
    Cynthia Harper
    • Self - Lamination Specialist
    Wong He
    Wong He
    • Self - Furance Engineer
    Timi Jernigan
    Timi Jernigan
    • Self - Furnance Technician
    Betty Jones
    • Self
    Jill Lamantia
    Jill Lamantia
    • Self - Forklift Operator
    Jeff Daochuan Liu
    Jeff Daochuan Liu
    • Self - President, Fuyao Glass America
    Curt McDivitt
    • Self
    Steve Reese
    • Self
    • Directors
      • Steven Bognar
      • Julia Reichert
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    More like this

    Icarus
    7.9
    Icarus
    The Edge of Democracy
    7.3
    The Edge of Democracy
    American Factory: A Conversation with the Obamas
    5.1
    American Factory: A Conversation with the Obamas
    Fyre
    7.2
    Fyre
    My Octopus Teacher
    8.1
    My Octopus Teacher
    The Great Hack
    7.0
    The Great Hack
    13th
    8.2
    13th
    The Social Dilemma
    7.6
    The Social Dilemma
    Downfall: The Case Against Boeing
    7.4
    Downfall: The Case Against Boeing
    Free Solo
    8.1
    Free Solo
    Dirty Money
    8.1
    Dirty Money
    The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
    6.9
    The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert previously worked on the short documentary The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (2009). It is about how the plant was shut down by General Motors, a topic in this movie.
    • Quotes

      Himself - Fuyao Safety Director: Everybody at every level will say that we really, really want to be safe. But safety doesn't pay the bills.

    • Connections
      Featured in The Oscars (2020)

    User reviews174

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    Chilling
    Fascinating documentary about a Chinese corporation that invests in American manufacturing, utilizing a site and workers that had been laid off by GM. We see the inevitable culture clash between Chinese management and American workers, with the shoe on the other foot relative to outsourcing, and hear frank observations about Americans from foreign eyes. In a larger sense, we get insight into the plight of blue-collar workers from both countries, and it's a depressing view.

    The Chinese management team that comes in doesn't always care about safety or the environment, but they're brutally efficient and drill their workers like an army or Communist party members, the latter of which is ironic, since the workers are so far from the ideals of communism, e.g. having real power and sharing the wealth of their labor. Meanwhile, one seriously wonders whether Americans can compete in this space, having been "spoiled" by prosperity and earlier times when they made a decent salary. You know, how dare they want a good work/life balance!

    Where the documentary falls short is in not showing us the treatment of these workers under the American company beforehand; it really could have used a one hour segment on that. If it had taken the time to do so, we would have seen the same problematic behavior from American corporate executives squeezing every last drop out of their workers for the sake of the bottom line, ultimately leading to outsourcing manufacturing to overseas workers forced to work long hours, often away from their families.

    The only effective means of worker power is through unionizing, and both Chinese and American executives resist it mightily, using pages from the exact same playbook, like targeting leaders and paying for propaganda campaigns. In a sense, the American executives going overseas was like finding a pool of scabs to cross the picket line. As one of the state congressmen observes in speaking to the workers, corporate profitability and treating workers respectfully via a living wage are not incompatible things, and it's shameful that they're treated that way out of unfettered greed in extreme capitalism. (Hmm, if only there was an international labor organization, lol)

    It seems to me it's a system that spirals upon itself further - when you distribute the wealth so incredibly unfairly in a country, the vast majority of consumers can't afford to pay the premium for a product that was made by unionized hands. They often don't have the economic freedom to do that, or to do things like shop at a mom 'n' pop shop instead of some corporate goliath like Wal-Mart, because they're living paycheck to paycheck and every penny matters. The result is to further drive the system in the direction it's going. Suddenly the middle-class starts dwindling and people are hoping more for a miracle ala the lottery than thinking they can truly make it. The documentary doesn't mention any of this so I'm guilty of rambling on here, but it did make me think.

    The ending sequence is sobering as well, showing management practically salivating over robotics taking the place of workers - you know, those pesky things on the payroll that do all of that complaining, sometimes get sick or pregnant, etc. Hey, we can drive costs down by just replacing them with machines! It's too bad no one asks any of the executives the difficult moral questions, like what the right thing to do is, or how they justify their behavior. Overall though, well done, and pretty chilling stuff.
    helpful•20
    1
    • gbill-74877
    • Jul 27, 2020

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 21, 2019 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Official Netflix
    • Languages
      • English
      • Mandarin
    • Also known as
      • Công Xưởng Hoa Kỳ
    • Filming locations
      • Moraine, Ohio, USA
    • Production companies
      • Higher Ground Productions
      • Participant
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 50 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.78 : 1
      • 1.85 : 1

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    American Factory (2019)
    Top Gap
    What is the Japanese language plot outline for American Factory (2019)?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.