AMERICAN FACTORY – Mini Review

AMERICAN FACTORY

Directors: Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert.

There’s a lot to learn and a lot to think about in this BAFTA-nominated documentary on Netflix. “I don’t know if I’m a contributor or a sinner” says the Chinese CAO of a factory in America which employs over 2000 American workers (most of which had been laid off by the closure of a previous GM factory) with complete disregards of health & safety, working hours and keeping them all on minimum wage (and dismissing them at the first chance).
But not all it as it seems. This is a complex, thought-provoking and utterly fascinating study about the clash between China and America and they way the two countries are miles apart not just geographically, but also in the way they approach work and life in general. The film tries to look at it from both sides, without any agenda and just when you think the Chinese are the “baddies”, then your preconceptions are completely subverted: the world is a much more complex place that it first appears and this is definitely a different type of documentary and a very interesting one too.