Sometimes a documentary arrives at just the right time. Whether it’s planned that way or it’s just the fate of the universe, these timely docs come and can affect audiences in a way that they may not have been ready for. Netflix’s upcoming doc “American Factory” might just be one of those films.
As seen in the trailer for “American Factory,” the doc follows the story of a US factory that is reopened thanks to the money from a Chinese billionaire. And even though he hires two thousand workers, rejuvenating a community, the culture clash between the Chinese folks and the American working class becomes nearly untenable.
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The film comes from filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar. Reichert is the three-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind projects like “Seeing Red,” “Union Maids,” and “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant.” She also teamed with Bognar on the Emmy-winning doc “A Lion in the House.”
“American Factory” is arriving on Netflix on August 21.
Here’s the synopsis:
From Academy Award®-nominated and Emmy Award®-winners Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar (“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant,” “A Lion in the House,” “Seeing Red”) comes AMERICAN FACTORY, a Netflix Original Documentary presented by Higher Ground Productions and Participant Media. The acclaimed film takes a deep dive into a post-industrial Ohio, where a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant and hires two thousand blue-collar Americans still recovering from the effects of the 2008 recession. Working side-by-side with experienced Chinese workers, the locals are optimistic about the future for the first time in almost a decade. But early days of hope give way to setbacks as high-tech China collides with working-class America, and issues of language and culture become seemingly insurmountable walls between clashing factions.
