American Factory (2019)

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

Won 1 Oscar. Another 17 wins & 42 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Junming 'Jimmy' Wang	...	Himself - Vice President, Fuyao
Robert Allen	...	Himself - Furnace Off-Loader (as Bobby)
Sherrod Brown	...	Himself - U.S. Senator, Ohio
Dave Burrows	...	Himself - Vice President, Fuyao Glass America
Austin Cole	...	Himself - Tempering Backlight Production Supervisor
John Crane	...	Himself - Fuyao Safety Director
John Gauthier	...	Himself - President, Fuyao Glass America
Rob Haerr	...	Himself - Furnace Supervisor
Cynthia Harper	...	Herself - Lamination Specialist
Wong He	...	Himself - Furance Engineer
Timi Jernigan	...	Himself - Furnance Technician
Jill Lamantia	...	Herself - Forklift Operator
Jeff Daochuan Liu	...	Himself - President, Fuyao Glass America
Shawnea Rosser	...	Herself - Glass Inspector
Rebecca Ruan-O'Shaughnessy	...	Herself - Fuyao Attorney

Storyline

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.

---

Plot Keywords:

working class | blue collar | factory worker | culture clash | 

---

Taglines:

Cultures collide. Hope survives.

---

Genres:

Documentary

---

Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Mandarin

Release Date:

21 August 2019 (USA)

Also Known As:

American Factory

Filming Locations:

Moraine, Ohio, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Higher Ground Productions, Participant

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

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

Features Despicable Me 2 (2013)

User Reviews

Education

I am a high school history teacher in the USA. I tried showing this movie to my classes, in between lessons on industrialization and the future of automation. This helped reveal the real problems we have, in my opinion. That most of my students were uninterested, and even did not care about these future issues. All they wanted to do was play games on their phones. I told them they would be quizzed on the material to try and get them to pay attention, but they did not care. Even when writing a quick summary of the movie, most just copied and pasted their responses, one of them even used one of these comments as their source data. They watched the movie with the strong belief that they won't end up like that. That somehow, they will be immune to these future issues.

For students who do not care about their education or their future, the best teacher in the world won't help. Apathy will destroy us far quicker than anything else.