American Factory

Equal pay for equal work? In my younger days, I worked in a union factory in Chicago. Thanks to the efforts of our local, we made exactly 15 cents more per hour than the prevailing minimum wage. Meanwhile, those in Detroit factories doing the same assembly or custodial work, earned more than four times that wage. With youthful insolence I recall complaining to our steward, "It's not fair that they make so much more than we do, after all, we're just as unskilled as they are." We didn't know it, but we were on the cusp of foreign competition and it wouldn't be long before factory owners across the world began asking the same question and relocating where the labor pool was larger and consequently, wages lower. While I don't know anyone who likes this (then again, I don't know any factory owners), it's hard not to notice the popularity of the Dollar Stores which are made possible only by cheap efficient manufacturing. Thus American Factory, probably the best documentary of the year, speaks to me. It follows the efforts of a Chinese billionaire reopening a shuttered Dayton, Ohio glass plant and hiring furloughed GM workers at a fraction of their former salary — though in-line with the global wage. The revelatory tale of how a large part of the world to which we're oblivious works and how they perceive American laborers (expensive, coddled, and inefficient) is enough to make you xenophobic and nostalgic for protectionism. My old employer, Turtle Wax, has long-since off-shored production as have many other manufacturers driven by both consumers' appetite for inexpensive products and the need to profit which is precisely Cao Dewang's objective for his American Factory. What's especially unsettling here is the absence of any hope for the future of wages: the film closes in relative silence as we watch legions of robotic arms perform the same glass windshield examination that only an hour earlier we saw low-paid workers carry out.

An open look into the factory industries of America and China, this doc gives insight into how two cultures handle business and treat their workers, with troublingly unsatisfactory results.

Total skip. Why watch something grim and hopeless for the future? Nobody knows how the future will play out. They can make guesses that machines will replace us blah blah blah but again why worry or why even watch such drivel when you can watch something funny and entertaining. Total fail for the Obamas and glad I'm canceling Netflix - they have such boring, poorly produced originals. Most of documentary is about awful Chinese bosses trying to tame their "inferior" American workers. I only enjoyed the part when the white dude waves a union sign inside factory and then got escorted out. He's like that's fine, they treat ppl like sht in there - and that about sums up this stupid show.

Weird how so many of the comments and reviews of this fine documentary seem to miss the point of it! The producers keep their powder dry until the documentary appears to be ending, then reveal that it is not really about the difference between US and Chinese working cultures - although that is fascinating in itself - but about the coming of automation; all, or just about all, of these jobs are going to be done by machines in the future. The US workers have already adapted to earning about half the wages they used to get and even so they are already being steadily replaced by machines. The Chinese workers, through working themselves into the ground, are competing for now, but the machines will be cheaper than humans in the end.

The Obamas' instinctual storytelling pursuits, in inspiring coming generations for a better outlook that needs regaining over costly innovations that'll lacks the delicate touches, bolsters this documentary over differential labors in one industrial sample amidst cultural clash with little progress from the initially optimistic hope towards the familiarly expected routines. The true core at the center values what sort of potential can come when inspired in collectively coming up with solutions rather than arguing which sides in the wrong of these issues, especially with foreign assistance in economic heal, as demonstrated and hinted. (B+)

This is a very well filmed documentary. I felt like the director did a fantastic job to keep their bias out of the film and try to portray both sides. There were so many great examples of this such as when the woman moves back into her own apartment and talks about gaining her independence, flash forward to four Chinese workers after a twelve hour shift, sitting around a folding table with folding chairs eating dinner. The contrast of the Chinese workers versus the American workers is startling.

Takes on a number of socio-economic, political, cultural and industrial relations related issues. Very good documentary.

It successfully circumvents one of the biggest challenges for documentary filmmakers: staying out of what he captures and, even so, letting the viewer know what is fair and what is not, as well as entertaining. The directors hang from a tightrope to show the cultural tensions that occurred in a Chinese company that opens the United States. The Chinese distrust of the Americans and vice versa, as well as the strong bounds - and tensions - created in the workplace are a fundamental part of the film, but above all it is an X-ray of the business crisis and (lack of) employment that occurred in Uncle Sam's country.

The movie touches the important topics such as the safe working environment, the struggle for keeping the job and what comes after that, being able to provide for your family/yourself. However, at the same time the movie itself seems dull, it feels in certain moments "empty", as if the directors didn't have enough recordings. In all honesty the only thing that kept me watching this documentary was the information that it presented with itself. I wish that the movie itself, would present even more of the workers viewpoint. *But I have to admit, that it's impressive how the ones making this documentary, persuaded the owners of the company to film the moments that weren't good for the company's image, such as the employing policy or straight up racism.* All in all, a good documentary of an important topic, but don't expect to be emotionally engaged with it.

A perfect documentary.