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American Factory (2019)
The first project from Netflix and the Obama's production company is this Documentary about a Chinese company setting up a new Glass factory in a closed GM plant in Ohio. It's a clash of cultures in attitude and expectation, which gives both sides equal voice. It has unbelievable access to the company and frank testimony from it's new American employees, Chinese immigrant workers and executives from both countries. Co-Director's Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert use no externally imposed narrative voice-over, hardly any text and no after-the-fact interviews, they refreshingly let the footage and the people tell the story. Mostly inviting and trusting the viewer to draw their own conclusions, only using juxtaposition to make their points about the opposing philosophies of the two countries. Fascinating stuff.
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (2009)
Co-Director's Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert's Oscar nominated 2009 Documentary short for HBO about the closure of the very same GM plant in Ohio that they show being re-opened in 2019's Doc 'American Factory'. Because they were granted no access to the plant, this is almost entirely made up from to-camera interviews with the workers (unlike the new film). Consequently it's not as interesting stylistically but the close-up emotional testimony from the people has it's own character.
[video=dailymotion]
The Edge of Democracy (2019)
Petra Costa's Netflix Documentary chronicles the removal of Brazil's two former Presidents Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff and events that lead up to the election of the current far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. As Costa's parents were both political activists and her grandfather founded a major construction firm implicated in bribery, she knew many of the people involved personally, so she is able to take you right into the corridors of power. Widescreen shots of Brasilia's spectacular modernist government complex, a towering monument to democracy, are contrasted with the corruption and scheming within.
The first project from Netflix and the Obama's production company is this Documentary about a Chinese company setting up a new Glass factory in a closed GM plant in Ohio. It's a clash of cultures in attitude and expectation, which gives both sides equal voice. It has unbelievable access to the company and frank testimony from it's new American employees, Chinese immigrant workers and executives from both countries. Co-Director's Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert use no externally imposed narrative voice-over, hardly any text and no after-the-fact interviews, they refreshingly let the footage and the people tell the story. Mostly inviting and trusting the viewer to draw their own conclusions, only using juxtaposition to make their points about the opposing philosophies of the two countries. Fascinating stuff.
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (2009)
Co-Director's Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert's Oscar nominated 2009 Documentary short for HBO about the closure of the very same GM plant in Ohio that they show being re-opened in 2019's Doc 'American Factory'. Because they were granted no access to the plant, this is almost entirely made up from to-camera interviews with the workers (unlike the new film). Consequently it's not as interesting stylistically but the close-up emotional testimony from the people has it's own character.
[video=dailymotion]
The Edge of Democracy (2019)
Petra Costa's Netflix Documentary chronicles the removal of Brazil's two former Presidents Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff and events that lead up to the election of the current far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. As Costa's parents were both political activists and her grandfather founded a major construction firm implicated in bribery, she knew many of the people involved personally, so she is able to take you right into the corridors of power. Widescreen shots of Brasilia's spectacular modernist government complex, a towering monument to democracy, are contrasted with the corruption and scheming within.