

アメリカン・ファクトリー
あらすじ
オハイオ州で閉鎖されていた工場が中国企業により再開され、地域の期待が高まったのも束の間。米中文化の衝突により、再びアメリカンドリームが打ち砕かれる。


オハイオ州で閉鎖されていた工場が中国企業により再開され、地域の期待が高まったのも束の間。米中文化の衝突により、再びアメリカンドリームが打ち砕かれる。
監督: スティーヴン・ボグナー / ジュリア・ライカート
音楽: Chad Cannon
制作: Julie Parker Benello / スティーヴン・ボグナー / ジュリア・ライカート
撮影監督: スティーヴン・ボグナー / Aubrey Keith
制作会社: Higher Ground / Participant / Field of Vision
You always read about "cultural differences" as being something that must be overcome when dealing with international projects, but that language always felt so abstract to me; if anything, it seemed like more of an excuse as to why things might be delayed rather than a real problem. This doc did a great job of telling the story of what that concept really means in practice. _American Factory_ shows you how much friction is created due to the incongruity in cultural ideas about work ethic, personal freedoms, power, and process. I think that was the highlight of the story for me. For me as an American, there were also feelings of frustration about having a country that doesn't have an answer for these people; their life goes from making $29 working for a US company, to making $12 for a Chinese company. The anti-labor-organizing that we see from Fuyao in the film isn't even unique to this being a China-based company; our home-grown Amazon does a pretty good job of hiring "labor relations" firms to weed out union organizing. I find myself agreeing with one of the speakers at a UAW event captured in the film: we've allowed our country to become one where the rich can exploit the poor, and it would be pretty cool to take it back.