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.... (Full plot summary below)
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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.
Leave your thoughts about American Factory.
| The New York TimesManohla DargisComplex, stirring, timely and beautifully shaped. |
| Washington PostAnn HornadayFilmed with extraordinary attention to environmental detail and revealing human interactions, American Factory is that rare documentary that’s not only compelling in its content but a profound sensory pleasure. |
| San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonLate in the extraordinary new Netflix documentary American Factory, Cao DeWang, the Chinese CEO of the Fuyao Group, wonders aloud, “I don’t know if I’m a contributor or a sinner.” |
| New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinIt’s a great, expansive, deeply humanist work, angry but empathetic to its core. It gestures toward the end of the working world we know — and to the rise of the machines. |
| RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiBecause it is the first film to be released by Higher Ground, the production company formed by Barack and Michelle Obama that signed a highly publicized deal with Netflix, American Factory will no doubt find an audience far larger than the typical documentary focusing on the contemporary labor movement. |
| The Film StageJordan RaupThoroughly engrossing ... The way the directors are able to provide a portrait of empathy on all sides is astounding. |
| Film ThreatAlan NgAmerican Factory is an example of my favorite type of documentary. It’s one that merely documents. It has no agenda to push, even though one grows organically throughout. |
| TheWrapWilliam BibbianiSteve Bognar and Julia Reichert have produced in “American Factory” an invaluable snapshot of a moment where history is repeating itself, and trying to write a new, possibly dystopian ending. But it’s also a film full of beautiful human beings, trying desperately to make good for themselves and their families regardless of their nationality and culture. |
| The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayBy telling their stories, entertainingly and persuasively, Bognar and Reichert make the case that they all deserve better. |
| VoxAlissa WilkinsonAmerican Factory tackles the challenges of globalization with much more depth and nuance than most reporting on the topic, precisely because it steps back to watch a story unfold over time and resists easy generalizations. It’s both soberly instructive and fascinating. |
