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Obamas’ first film wins best documentary Oscar
HOLLYWOOD, United States, Feb 10, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – “American Factory”, a
documentary produced by Barack and Michelle Obama for Netflix about a
manufacturing plant in the US Midwest reopened by a Chinese billionaire, won
the Oscar for best documentary on Sunday.
The film charts a Midwestern rust belt community’s journey from optimism at
the giant plant’s reopening — bringing back vital jobs — toward creeping
anger and disillusionment as the Chinese management imposes its strict,
exhausting demands on workers and sacks those who do not comply.
“Our film is from Ohio and China,” director Julia Reichert said while
accepting her golden statuette. “But it really could be from anywhere that
people put on a uniform, punch a clock, trying to make their families have a
better life.”
“Working people have it harder and harder these days, and we believe that
things will get better when workers of the world unite,” she said.
Co-directed by Reichert and Steven Bognar, the film is an all-access look
at how both American and Chinese workers, from blue-collar to management, had
their lives transformed by powerful global economic forces that caught the
eyes of none other than the Obamas.
The former first couple acquired “American Factory” at the January 2019
Sundance Festival, where it had won the directing award, and was released on
Netflix in August that year as the first offering from their Higher Ground
Productions company.
Both Barack and Michelle Obama congratulated Reichert and Bognar for their
win Sunday, with the former president calling the film “a complex, moving
story about the very human consequences of wrenching economic change.”
“Glad to see two talented and downright good people take home the Oscar for
Higher Ground’s first release,” he tweeted.
Michelle said she was “glad to see their heart and honesty recognized —
because the best stories are rarely tidy or perfect.”
“But that’s where the truth so often lies,” she wrote on Twitter.
“The Edge of Democracy”, “The Cave”, “For Sama” and “Honeyland” were also
up for best documentary.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0951 hrs