Obamas and Netflix

Present 1st Joint Film

Project, ‘American
Factory’
Former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle made their
Hollywood debut on Wednesday with a film set in industrial Ohio.
The documentary American Factory looks at a former American
automobile factory now operating as a Chinese business.

The film was released Wednesday on Netflix. It is the streaming service's

first joint project with the Obamas' new production company, Higher
Ground.

Filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert said they learned of the
Obamas' interest in the film as they were discussing placement
of American Factory with Netflix. They were told the Obamas had seen
the movie a few days earlier.

Bognar and Reichert live in the Dayton, Ohio, area. That is where Fuyao
Glass replaced a General Motors factory. The filmmakers said they had
first planned to explore a culture clash. But then, they said, the film
deepened into a story about globalization and the rights of workers.

Chinese businessman Cao Dewang owns the Fuyao plant. He employs

about 2,200 American workers and 200 Chinese workers. The film gives a
close-up look at how the workers from different cultures interact. For
example, many Chinese at the factory say Americans do not work hard
enough. And at one point, a Chinese worker explains that Americans are
slow because they have fat fingers.
The American workers question what they see as Chinese workers
unquestioned service to a company that robs them of time to enjoy life.

Dave Burrows was the vice president of the factory. In one part of the film,
he privately criticizes Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown for suggesting that the
Chinese consider letting employees unionize. Two years later, after having
been dismissed, Burrows insults Fuyao as he drives by the factory.

Tensions rise when the factory does not meet production goals, leading to
an angry disagreement about the right to unionize.

Near the end of the film, an employee gives Cao a tour of the factory floor.
The employee praises how automation gives Fuyao the chance to
dismiss workers.