“American Factory,” the primary Netflix project released under the banner of Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground Productions, won an Academy Award at the 2020 Oscars on Sunday night.
The documentary, directed by filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar, won the award for Best Documentary Feature. The film chronicles what happened when a Chinese billionaire opened a replacement factory at the previous General Motors plant outside of Dayton, Ohio, in 2014. it had been produced by company Participant Media before the finished film was acquired by Netflix and better Ground.
“American Factory” was released on the streaming service last year in August. Reichert and Bognar met the previous president and first lady in Washington the month prior.
Reichert said the Obamas are “wonderful people.”
“It was amazing once we heard that the president and therefore the first lady had seen our film, and wanted to embrace it and wanted to elevate us as filmmakers,” she said. “I mean, they’re considerably into artists and writers.”
During a sit-down conversation between the filmmakers and therefore the Obamas that was published online in August, Michelle Obama noted, “one of the various things i really like about this project is that it’s not an article .”
“I mean, you truly let people represent themselves,” she continued.
“American Factory” won the Directing Award for a U.S. documentary at the 2019 Sundance festival.
