American Factory review – a culture clash in microcosm

This is a story that begins in 2008 with the closure of a prominent General Motors plant and the loss of more than 10,000 jobs, leaving a reliant community in tatters. Then, in 2015, an unexpected saviour arrives in the form of Chinese billionaire Chairman Cao, who buys the abandoned factory as an expansion of his glass-making company, Fuyao, promising thousands of jobs for Americans and – in the process – improved relations between the United States and China. The title, of course, is somewhat ironic. The factory of American Factory might be situated in Ohio, but it isn’t exactly American.

Captured with admirable even-handedness and remarkable access by filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, American Factory offers a gripping account of the birth of “Fuyao Glass America.” As an elegant, crisply-shot portrait of two cultures trying and failing to work together under the strain of modern capitalism, we explore the lives of the factory’s employees – a mix of Ohio natives and Chinese migrants – amidst the humming machines, breaking glass, and tons of cultural misunderstandings that are alternately amusing and cringeworthy.

American Factory is set to garner extra attention on the basis it’s the first film to spring from the Obamas’ deal between Netflix and their own production company, Higher Ground, though the former President and First Lady’s names are surprisingly absent from the opening credits – a nod, perhaps, to how little they were involved in the actual making. But it’s a great find on their part: engaging, sobering, and funny, albeit in that “If I don’t laugh I might cry” sort of way, most notably during a scene in which an American worker jokingly tells a Chinese worker the only way to stop Americans from talking to one other at work is to duct-tape their mouths. “Can you do that there?” deadpans the Chinese worker, highlighting the width of this cultural gap.

Much of American Factory juxtaposes the militaristic discipline of the Chinese against the supposed “laziness” of their American counterparts. During one segment, a group of American employees travel to China to see a factory working at optimum and we witness their equal fear and awe over the Chinese work ethic. Temporarily appeased by their hosts with an all-star show, which includes an endearing performance of the “Y.M.C.A” (one American even breaks down into tears), the trip ultimately sets off a chain of events that ends in the widespread talk of unionising. When the company begins to lose money, Cao declares it’s because Americans are hostile towards China. Meanwhile, Chinese workers are told in private they are “better” and are taught how to treat the “overconfident” Americans in order get the best out of them. Do they mean better at working in a factory, though, or in general?

The most remarkable thing about American Factory is the way it avoids taking sides, achieved through a simple, fly-on-the-wall approach that encourages you to think for yourself. You can’t help but admire the Chinese for their dedication and discipline; and yet you also sympathise with the Americans and their concerns with safety and pay. It’s a film that continuously upends your opinion, like when Chairman Cao, an enigma for much of the runtime, unexpectedly recalls a happy childhood filled with wildflowers and chirping bugs and wonders whether a life spent building factories has negatively impacted the world.

It’s the filmmaker’s refusal to point fingers or paint villains that elevates the work beyond what it might have been in lesser hands. And yet American Factory‘s most disturbing moment doesn’t involve a culture clash at all, but an exchange between Cao and an employee on the factory floor, boasting to his boss that he is set to replace four workers with a machine. The Americans, unable to speak Chinese, simply pass by, oblivious to their demise. Globalisation is one thing, but this might be the film’s most telling moment: a troubling glimpse into an inevitable future in which, one by one, we each find ourselves mercilessly usurped by a machine.

★★★★☆

By: Tom Barnard

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