Barack and Michelle Obama have revealed the first film under their Higher Ground Productions company will be called ‘American Factory’.
The documentary charts American factory workers who now labour under new management, bosses in China.
According to Oscar-nominated Directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, it’s a film about ‘reverse globalization’. The film chronicles a Midwestern community’s journey, from having the GM plant in their area close down, to it being re-opened under new management by China’s Fuyao corporation.
The all-access look shows how both American and Chinese workers – all the way from the factory floor to management – have had their lives transformed.
The former first couple first saw American Factory in January’s Sundance Festival, and picked up the rights to help distribute it. The documentary will be released on Netflix and in select theatres on August 21.
“Mrs Obama said it resonated with her because her father had done an intense, hardworking job for decades just to provide for his family, and she felt the Midwesternness of the film in what she saw on screen,” Bognar.
“She felt her own family in the film, and I think the President felt there was a certain amount of policy issues and big broad globalization” themes in the documentary, added Reichert.
Check out the trailer below:
