Barack and Michelle Obama are sending thanks and admiration to the filmmakers behind American Factory after the documentary about the loss of manufacturing jobs in the Midwest picked up the Best Documentary Oscar during Sunday’s 92nd Academy Awards — the first Oscar win for the Obamas’ Higher Ground production company.
American Factory, released on Netflix, focused on the lives of employees at a former General Motors plant in Moraine, Ohio after the factory felt the impact of globalization following the closure of a glass manufacturing site year prior and the purchase of the company by a Chinese billionaire. The film was purchased by Higher Ground after it caught the Obamas’ attention at the Sundance Film Festival, and won Best Documentary Sunday over fellow nominees Honeyland, The Cave, The Edge of Democracy and For Sama.
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Both Barack and Michelle took to Twitter after the win, congratulating directors Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar on their win for “telling such a complex, moving story.”
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
Congrats to Julia, Steven, and the whole crew on winning Best Documentary for #AmericanFactory, Higher Ground’s first release! So glad to see their heart and honesty recognized—because the best stories are rarely tidy or perfect. But that’s where the truth so often lies. https://t.co/qtdNEw9H3f
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) February 10, 2020
American Factory director Reichert quoted Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto while accepting the Best Documentary award last night, telling the audience, “We believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite.”
Photo credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
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