![]() If American Factory offers a twist on the narrative of capital’s drive to discipline and punish workers, it is through its attention to a Chinese company operating in the American Midwest. The new owner provides many in the area with a much-welcomed return to work, but as the film shows, working for Fuyao is unusual in a number of ways and presents serious challenges, which provide ample material for the film’s drama. American Factory picks up at the same plant in 2015, when it is purchased by the Chinese automotive glass manufacturer Fuyao. Produced and directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, American Factory is a sequel of sorts to the pair’s Oscar-nominated film, The Last Truck: The Closing of a GM Plant (2009), which documented the closing of a car factory outside of Dayton, OH, and the people whose lives were affected. We hear from factory managers that they have spies in the workforce to identify union activists. We see the capitalist owner complain about lazy employees. We see factory workers suffer injuries because of unsafe work conditions. Indeed, one of the most surprising aspects of the film is how unsurprising so much of it is to anyone who knows anything about the history of working-class politics or has read a bit of Karl Marx. “A New Take on Post-Fordism” Daniel Herbert (University of Michigan)Īmerican Factory is a smart and engaging film that tells a classic story of labor versus capital.
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