American Factory

The 2020 Oscar winning documentary, American Factory, is about a closed General Motors plant in Dayton Ohio that is now owned by a Chinese billionaire that employs American workers under Chinese authoritarian management. It is a prescription headed for conflict when workers try to form a union under the impression they are more than compliant cogs in the machine but actually have rights. This is the first film to be released by Higher Ground, the production company formed by Barack and Michelle Obama. It is a tale from the rust belt that is struggling with the impact of globalization.