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Each week new, original movies debut on Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services, often with far less fanfare than their big screen counterparts. Cinemastream is the Vox series that highlights the most remarkable of these premieres, in order to keep new movies interesting and easily accessible on your radar.
American factory
The premise: In December 2008, the last truck went off the assembly line at GM's Dayton plant in Ohio. Thousands of people were unemployed. Then, in 2014, a Chinese company reopened the plant and rehired staff to manufacture automotive glass. American factory is a documentary about the reopening of the factory and the cultural clashes that have created obstacles on the road. (This is also the first Higher Ground movie, Barack and production company Michelle Obama, who partnered with Netflix to distribute a range of programs.)
What is it about: Directed by experienced documentary filmmakers Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert, American factory Then come – mostly on the fly – when the GM closed in Dayton is reopened under the name of Fuyao Glass America, the US subsidiary of a Chinese company that manufactures automotive glass. The Daytonians who have struggled after being fired from GM are looking forward to their re-engagement with the new company, but are quick to see their expectations of work practices and corporate culture clash with the ideals of the new leadership.
The film traces American and Chinese workers and executives during a period of adjustment that has lasted for years, some of them very difficult. Sometimes it's a little funny. The differences between American and Chinese ideas about loyalty to your employer, plant safety, overtime and more are in the spotlight. And when the Fuyao Glass America workers decide to join a union, the problems are coming.
Reichert (whose 50-year career in documentary often examined the American working class) and Bognar knew what they were doing to choose this factory for the film. They live in Dayton and in their short 2009 documentary The last truckThey seized the closure of the GM plant and its effects on the community, mainly through interviews with workers who were losing their jobs.
So it was a familiar and personal pitch for them, and they spent years at the factory with their team to capture an overview of what had happened and who did not. demonized or concealed conflict. They train their cameras not only on people, but also on tasks and equipment, giving an audience less familiar with the place of manufacture an idea of the complexity and difficulty of the work, but also the value of the skilled labor. American factory "Attacking the challenges of globalization with much more depth and nuance than most reports on the subject, precisely because it goes back to watching a story unfold in time and withstand easy generalizations. It is both soberly instructive and fascinating.
Critical reception: American factory Metacritic scored 76 out of 100. At Variety, Peter Debruge writes that "American factory is anything but a dry documentary and will likely be a prime candidate in the awards season. "
How to watch it: American factory starts streaming on Netflix on August 21st.
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