American Factory

— The filmmakers are a charming duo from Dayton, Ohio, who unabashedly tout their Midwestern heritage as adding a layer to their filmmaking. They may be right. Dayton’s workforce suffered when GM closed their Moraine assembly plant in 2008, leaving 2,400 workers jobless. “American Factory” introduces a few of those workers and their lives following the closure. Then, in 2014, Chinese auto glass manufacturer Fuyao announced it was taking over the former GM plant, investing millions into the local economy and creating new jobs. By the end of 2016, Fuyao employed more than 2,000 workers at the Moraine plant. This would seem to be a win/win story, but the film details, sometimes humorously and sometimes incredulously, the difficulties that had to be overcome as two worker cultures collided. GM had been a Union plant and Fuyao was not. Chinese workers valued jobs and saw their employers as an integral part of their lives while American workers saw their employers as potential adversaries and their jobs as a means to a better personal life. As American workers traveled to China and Chinese workers came to the U.S., differences sometimes seemed insurmountable. The film walks a delicate balance, trying not to take sides, even as workers lobbied unsuccessfully to unionize in 2016. It’s a great look at cultural divides and can’t help but raise questions about assimilation, acculturation, and integration. (Shown at True/False Film Fest 2019.)

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[2019. 115 min. Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert.]
https://www.indiewire.com/2019/01/american-factory-review-sundance-1202038438/