Ex US President Barack and Michelle Obama’s first Netflix project is getting rave reviews

Netflix debuted a new documentary on Wednesday that presents a deeply moving portrait of the ground-level workers at a new factory in post-industrial Ohio. It’s a factory reopened by a Chinese billionaire amid the ruins of a shuttered General Motors plant whose closing hammered the Ohio town around it — as well as the thousands of workers laid-off as a result.

 
What this new documentary American Factory offers is a look at the lives of 2,000 of those blue-collar workers who take jobs at the new factory under the Chinese owner. The owner brings in some of his Chinese employees to work side-by-side with the Americans, and you see what happens when high-tech, uber-efficient Chinese productivity clashes with working-class America.

 Chinese supervisor explaining to the Chinese workers who’ve temporarily re-located to Ohio how Americans think. They’re all consumerist and love to drive big cars, he explains, and Americans don’t like nuance or complexity — they tell you to your face exactly what they think. You can even make fun of the president and no one will arrest you, he continues, adding that America is a place where self-expression is celebrated, so “let your  personality run free.”


The Obamas’ company scooped up American Factory after its Sundance debut earlier this year — and what’s also interesting about both the movie and what the Obamas are planning for the rest of their Netflix productions is that it’s content that is devoid of a political message.(bgr)