In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens up a factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand blue-collar Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America. Directors Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar are clearly on the side of the workers, yet their film is an old-school observational documentary in the best sense of the term, timeless and distinctly of its time.

American Factory won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.