Former US president Barack Obama and wife Michelle Obama produced a documentary American Factory, for Netflix last year. The same has now won the best documentary award at the Oscars as the first offering by the couple’s production house Higher Ground Productions.
“Glad to see two talented and downright good people take home the Oscar for Higher Ground’s first release,” tweeted Barack Obama as he congratulated the directors Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar on the win.
Congrats to Julia and Steven, the filmmakers behind American Factory, for telling such a complex, moving story about the very human consequences of wrenching economic change. Glad to see two talented and downright good people take home the Oscar for Higher Ground’s first release. https://t.co/W4AZ68iWoY
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 10, 2020
American Factory is a story about a manufacturing plant in Midwest US (Ohio) that was reopened by a Chinese business tycoon. While the plant’s reopening came as a fresh breath of air for economically crunched working class of the town, it was the strict working requirements and layoffs that further frustrated the local labors.
“Our film is from Ohio and China but it really could be from anywhere that people put on a uniform, punch a clock, trying to make their families have a better life,” said Julia Reichert while accepting her Oscars trophy.
“Working people have it harder and harder these days, and we believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite,” she added.
#Oscars Moment: Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert and @JeffReichert9 accept the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature: “American Factory” (@afactoryfilm). pic.twitter.com/p4cWdVWm5S
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) February 10, 2020
