American Factory (2019)

Nominated for Best Documentary Feature    This actually ended up winning, which was kind of a surprise to me.  I only saw two of the category this year but I was not impressed by this.

A General Motors factory in Dayton, Ohio closed, putting hundreds of people out of work.  It was then bought by a Chinese company and refitted to make automobile glass.  Workers are initially excited for the renewed opportunity but friction soon begins between the Chinese management and American workers.

The documentary does a very good job of identifying individual voices among both nationalities of workers and presenting their lives and attempts at community.  I just kind of feel like it didn't go far enough.  There's a larger point to be made here about how the upper management exploits the workers and spends so much money trying to frighten them into giving up their rights to organize that's alluded to but not explored.  It's very much not a "Chinese vs US" problem but a "1% vs 99%" problem.  Maybe I'm just in an Eat the Rich kind of mood.

Anyway, it's on Netflix if you want to check it out.