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IMDbPro

American Factory

  • 20192019
  • TV-14TV-14
  • 1h 50m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
22K
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
1 Video
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.
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
22K
YOUR RATING
    • Steven Bognar
    • Julia Reichert
  • Stars
    • Junming 'Jimmy' Wang
    • Robert Allen
    • Sherrod Brown
    • Steven Bognar
    • Julia Reichert
  • Stars
    • Junming 'Jimmy' Wang
    • Robert Allen
    • Sherrod Brown
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 172User reviews
    • 62Critic reviews
    • 86Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 Oscar

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:31
    Watch Official Trailer

    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
      • Steven Bognar
      • Julia Reichert
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    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 reviews172

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    9/10
    Anyone concerned about the effects on real people of globalization should see this film
    This film is an extraordinary achievement. With footage going back over the years, the directors have pieced together the saga of the establishment of a Chinese-run industrial operation in Dayton on the site of a much-lamented closed GM plant, illustrating, with total objectivity, the contradictions that ensue from the imposition of one national worldview upon another in a dynamic that it never a clash of equals. The impatience and contempt of the Chinese investors toward their U.S. workforce and the consequent cultural conflicts are highlighted to devastating effect, illustrated by what American viewers will find to be an uncomfortable dissection of their own culture, in all its fatuous self-indulgence, by amazing footage of lectures on the subject by Chinese cross-cultural consultants as they lecture Chinese workers and supervisors sent to Dayton to show Americans in how things should be done.

    At the Q&A at the premiere at IFC Center, co-director Julia Reichert was at pains to stress that the film was never meant to be polemical, that this was an effort to immerse and learn. While some of the silllier aspects of both cultures, (but especially the regimented and self-congratulatory aspects of the Chinese). come through with particular acuity, you can't help buy muse on how Americans have acted with equal tin-earedness and cultural arrogance around the world, over many more decades than the Chinese have been at this game.

    At the same time, America's neediness of manufacturing jobs, even if they don't pay a living wage, and the ways that so many of what we would normally consider our core values go out the window to accommodate anyone who will invest in them, come through particularly clearly. This all comes together in a fight over the establishment of a union that would protect workers' rights and uphold our eroding safety and environmental standards that is the vivid core of the movie.

    A final note: This film has an extraordinarily compelling musical score by someone names Chad Cannon that propels and highlights the narrative and is amazingly effective on its own terms. Although the idiom is different, Cannon's score does for this film much of what Philip Glass's have done over the years for the films of Errol Morris, and that is high praise indeed.
    helpful•60
    8
    • Mengedegna
    • Aug 23, 2019

    Details

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    • Release date
      • August 21, 2019 (United States)
      • United States
      • Official Netflix
      • English
      • Mandarin
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Moraine, Ohio, USA
    • Production companies
      • Higher Ground Productions
      • Participant
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • 1 hour 50 minutes
      • Color
      • Dolby Digital

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