WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Ohio filmmakers behind the new documentary “American Factory” were on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to speak at an event hosted by Senator Sherrod Brown.
- Documentary follows Moraine glass plant
- Ohio filmmakers talked unions during DC trip
- Sen. Brown featured in documentary
The film follows the opening of the Fuyao auto glass plant at the location of the old General Motors plant in the Dayton, Ohio suburb of Moraine. It also tracks the workers’ efforts to unionize.
Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar, of Yellow Springs, Ohio, spent four years making the film. They previously put together a documentary about the GM plant closing in Moraine back in 2008 called “The Last Truck.”
In an interview with Spectrum after participating in a panel discussion with Brown, the filmmakers said their projects have taught them that the American dream as we know it is becoming more unrealistic.
“I think you see in our film that it’s not so true anymore,” Reichert said. “And people are struggling to figure out well, how are we going to have a solid, secure life in a place like Dayton, Ohio?”
Bognar said, “Working people are under more pressure, whether you’re in China or Ohio or England or Thailand. You are facing more demands for productivity, wages are pushed down, safety is eroded, all the stuff that we thought we were going to get to.”
Brown makes an appearance in the documentary when he attends the plant’s ribbon cutting and encourages the Chinese billionaire owner to support his employees unionizing — a move that prompts the owner and his American executives to curse about Brown and threaten to cut the senator’s head off.
During Wednesday’s panel and screening of the film on Capitol Hill, Brown spoke about his support for the “Protecting the Right to Organize (Pro) Act.” He was joined by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
Afterward, Spectrum Washington reporter Taylor Popielarz asked Brown if he thinks his lawmaker colleagues on Capitol Hill understand work in the way it’s portrayed in the film.
“I think the number of Democrats cosponsoring the Pro Act says they mostly get it,” he said. “I would also say I wish that people in my party, as they run for office — from the president to other offices — would talk more about the dignity of work, about honoring and respecting work.”
“American Factory” was picked up by Barack and Michelle Obama’s new production company, Higher Ground.
The move drew some criticism from Dayton-area Republican Rep. Mike Turner, who accused the former president of catering to the United Auto Workers union and not helping non-UAW workers in Moraine transfer to other plants.
Turner wrote in a recent op-ed: ““The hypocrisy of this Obama-backed film is astounding. Mr. Obama fails to acknowledge his direct role in creating the hardships the Moraine workers weathered.”
When asked about the op-ed, Reichert and Bognar said Turner’s comments are “way off the mark” because workers told them they felt Obama did all he could, since the GM plant closed shortly after he took office.