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Yellow Springs Filmmakers' Fuyao Glass America Doc To Stream On Netflix

Dawnetta Cantrell from American Factory
American Factory
Dawnetta Cantrell from American Factory

Academy Award-nominated Yellow Springs filmmakers Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert’s latest documentary about Fuyao Glass America will soon be available for streaming. The film will be shown on Netflix under a partnership between the streaming video company and former President Barack Obama's and Michelle Obama’s company Higher Ground Productions

The film American Factory debuted at the recent Sundance Film Festival. It follows the Moraine GM Assembly Plant’s transformation into the Chinese-owned Fuyao Glass America.

American Factory is a follow-up of sorts to Reichert’s and Bognar’s 2009 Oscar-nominated “The Last Truck.” That documentary told the story of the GM plant’s closure and ripple effects.

The Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions is expected to feature a mix of documentary-style and scripted films.

Steve Bognar Julia Reichert
Credit Eryn Montgomery

The deal between Higher Ground and Netflix is the latest in a series of attention grabbing deals for Reichert and Bognar.

The pair secured financing for “American Factory” from company Participant Media -- a distribution company specializing in documentary and social-issue-focused media.

And the film took home a Best Director award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Jess Mador comes to WYSO from Knoxville NPR-station WUOT, where she created an interactive multimedia health storytelling project called TruckBeat, one of 15 projects around the country participating in AIR's Localore: #Finding America initiative. Before TruckBeat, Jess was an independent public radio journalist based in Minneapolis. She’s also worked as a staff reporter and producer at Minnesota Public Radio in the Twin Cities, and produced audio, video and web stories for a variety of other news outlets, including NPR News, APM, and PBS television stations. She has a Master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York. She loves making documentaries and telling stories at the intersection of journalism, digital and social media.
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