American Factory

A 2019 documentary film that was awarded an Oscar, in 2020, American Factory tells about the re-opening of an automotive glass plant in Dayton, Ohio under Chinese ownership. When the plant closed, thousands of workers lost their jobs. The coming of a Chinese investor to open Fuyao Glass America was seen as an opportunity to return to meaningful work for many of the laid-off workers. But they were paid less than half of what they had been making before, and safety standards were not observed. When unionization efforts began, the company paid a million dollars to a "union avoidance" consulting firm, fired pro-union employees, and forced workers to attend multiple anti-union sessions. The film is good at following people around as they work, participate in corporate meetings and events, and tell us about what the jobs mean to them; the approach is very much of the "show, don't tell" version of documentary film-making. Some interviews with Chinese supervisors are included, but most of the information about working conditions in China is presented briefly without much context for their struggles, and next to nothing is said about their status as Chinese workers in the U.S.--they were apparently paid half of what their American co-workers were making. The Chinese managers speak openly about how American workers are slow, and talk about trying to manage them as if they are recalcitrant animals. To be fair, there are Americans--a lawyer, anti-union consultants, and a manager--who take the same stance. The film records a nationalistic rhetoric at times, but the tactics employed by the owners and management are the same as in any American-owned company.   It's a fairly polite movie given its topic, but it's possible to read between the lines about the need for global solidarity in the face of transnational capitalism. Barack and Michelle Obama's Netflix production company supported the film. The film is not available legally in China, but has been seen by enough people to spark vigorous conversations on social media about working conditions in both countries.

Battle at Versailles

Since there is a new show about the designer Halston, it's time to revisit the "Battle At Versailles" from 1973, a moment in fashion history, when French and American designers came together for a show to raise money for renovations to Versailles. It became a kind of face-off, and the American designers pulled off a stunning display of energy and innovation: Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, Anne Klein, Halston and Stephen Burrows. The African-American models lit up the show. For me, Burrows is the revelation:

 

The "Up Series" part 2:

As I finished my Netflix marathon of the Up documentary series, I realized that I am the same age as this group. Well, slightly younger, but I also turned 7 in 1964, the year of the first film.  I decided to make my own timeline, parallel to the series: where was I in the year of the release of each part, or when I was the age given in each title: 7, 14, 21, 29, 35, 42, 49, and now 56? (although because I'm a year behind, I'll have to settle for just-turned-55).

Because my family moved frequently when I was young (dad was a doctor in the Army), to make my timeline I found that I had to do some work to nail down the exact dates for events that I vaguely remembered: when did we move? when were we in each housing situation? what grade was I in at school?

As I worked out this chronology, I also wondered what  I really remembered about those years, and how this somewhat arbitrary cycle relates to other milestones in my life, such as graduating from high school, or moving to Minnesota.  I wondered what I might have said if I had been interviewed like those children: what was my heart's desire (to be a horse. And if I couldn't be a horse, to be an archaeologist in Egypt). Where would I go to school in the future (absolutely no clue). Did I have a boyfriend (no, but I had an intense crush on Mike Fukushima, to whom I never said a word, a pattern that would be repeated each school year until I was in high school).

My life has been at once typically American middle class in many ways and rather unorthodox in others. I've previously counted the number of times we moved (4), the number of homes we lived in (7) while we were still in the Army. I've reckoned my life in boyfriends/relationships with men. And then there are the more traditional timelines of schooling, career, parenting. How does this 7+7 timeline intersect with these?

I started to write about what I remembered from age 7, from the year 1964. My family had just moved from El Paso, Texas, where my brother and sister were born, to an Sagamihara Dependent Housing Area, near Tokyo because my rather had been stationed in Camp Zama hospita. I realized that Apted's films almost never refer directly to national or world events, whereas my life was shaped, at this point especially, by my father's work as an Army doctor during the major escalation of the Viet Namwar. Yet I know almost nothing about what my father was doing, what he thought or felt about the extraordinary experiences he lived through as a surgeon at Camp Zama from 1963 to 1967.

The "Up series" Part 1

Having seen the POV blog's list of best documentaries, I was reminded of my desire to see the series of films by Michael Apted, now known as the "Up series" In 1964, Apted was brought in on a project that later he made his: a group of children from widely different backgrounds was selected and then interviewed, with the premise: who will they be in the year 2000? The assumption or question behind the films, made every seven years since then, had to do with ideas about class in British society. Were these children already who they would be, by the age of seven? Were their paths laid out for them and constrained in such a way that they would conform or be limited by class expectations or opportunities such as education? The first documentary ended with the sentence "Give me the child until he is seven, and I will give you the man."
Here's the first part of the first film. You can watch the whole series on Netflix streaming. 



The films don't set out to be anthropology, sociology or psychology in an academic sense, but they do prompt reflection on  nature and nurture,  the work of marriage,  mental health, parenting, immigration, changing gender roles. The seven-year olds from the upper-class backgrounds are clearly parroting what they've heard from their parents when they list the schools they expect to attend, in contrast to the boy in the orphanage who asks, "What's university?" It is also not revealed that the boy who seems to be the most Tory in his statements, John, the most representative of a certain upper-class posture, lost his father at the age of 9, and was raised by his Hungarian mother, attending public schools on scholarship. Although he has privilege and wealth, his life was not as easy as the films imply.

One of my favorite moments in the 14-year old episode is when Suzy, also from a wealthy background, refusing to look directly at the camera and clearly uncomfortable about the whole deal, responds with a perfect teenager eye-roll to an earnest question by Apted, off camera.

The last of the series that I was able to see was 49 Up. Here's a clip:


The latest film, 56 Up, has already been screened in the UK, and will probably be released shown in the US in Jan 2013. Much has been said about the how this series of films has affected the lives of the participants, and how it continues to fascinate viewers, especially now that "reality TV" is present as a comparison. Apted has said that he regrets that there were not more girls in the bunch, or more middle-class children, but even if the group is not truly representative of their generation in that sense, the series is a fascinating longitudinal study of human beings, as well as compelling cinema.

POV blog offers a list of 100 documentary films to see

Now I know what to add to my Netflix queue! I copied this list from the PBS program POV's blog.  They crowd-sourced a list of documentaries from their viewers. Naturally, some readers left their expressions of outrage in the comments, but also included more titles.

I have seen 33 of them (marked with strike-through) and have heard of most of the others. Some I will probably never see (The Cove, no, I can't). There are at least 2 or 3 that I think I might have seen, but I honestly can't actually remember if I just saw a clip in a class (Shoah, Gimme Shelter) or did see them at the PFA  (For the 15 years I lived in Berkeley, I don't think I ever lived more than six blocks from the Pacific Film Archive, where I went instead of watching the TV I did not have: a different double feature almost every night of films new and old, from all over the world).

This list has struck my "completist"  nerve, and I will probably look at the titles with a different sense of motivation the next time I am scrolling through my queue, trying to decide what I feel like watching.

I really want to see the Up series.

The 100 “Greatest” Documentaries

In November 2012, POV asked its viewers, “What do you think are the greatest documentaries of all time?” Viewers were allowed to define “greatest” however they wished, whether that meant the most expertly crafted, influential, illuminating, impactful, form-defining, beloved or simply those that were the most successful at the box office. After 30 days of voting on over 1000 submissions, these 100 came out on top. How many have you seen?

1. Grey Gardens (1975)
2. Paris is Burning (1990)
3. Hoop Dreams (1994)
4. The Thin Blue Line (1988)
5. Bowling for Columbine (2002)
6. Harlan County, USA (1976)
7. The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)
8. Grizzly Man (2005)
9. Roger & Me (1989)
10. Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
11. Man on Wire (2008)
12. The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)
13. The Up Series (1964-)
14. Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
15. Crumb (1994)
16. Jesus Camp (2006)
17. Food, Inc. (2008)
18. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
19. An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
20. Salesman (1968)
21. Man With a Movie Camera (1929)
22. Super Size Me (2004)
23. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
24. Woodstock (1970)
25. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
26. American Movie (1999)
27. Night and Fog (Nuit et brouillard) (1955)
28. The Civil War (1990)
29. March of the Penguins (2005)
30. Titicut Follies (1967)
31. Sherman’s March (1986)
32. Planet Earth (2006)
33. Eyes on the Prize (1987)
34. Religulous (2008)
35. The Last Waltz (1978)
36. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
37. Spellbound (2002)
38. Born into Brothels (2004)
39. Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)
40. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991)
41. Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
42. The Cove (2009)
43. Nanook of the North (1922)
44. The Corporation (2003)
45. The Celluloid Closet (1995)
46. Buena Vista Social Club (1998)
47. Sicko (2007)
48. Waltz with Bashir (2008)
49. Gimme Shelter (1970)
50. Stop Making Sense (1984)
51. Shoah (1985)
52. When We Were Kings (1996)
53. Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)
54. Inside Job (2010)
55. Hearts and Minds (1974)
56. Murderball
57. The Gleaners & I (2000)
58. Restrepo (2010)
59. Bill Cunningham New York (2010)
60. Sans Soleil (Sunless) (1983)
61. Dont Look Back (1967)
62. Touching the Void (2003)
63. Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone (2010)
64. Baraka (1992)
65. This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)
66. Tongues Untied (1989)
67. Brother’s Keeper (1992)
68. High School (1968)
69. F for Fake (1973)
70. Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)
71. Dark Days (2000)
72. Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
73. Cosmos (1980)
74. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)
75. Helvetica (2007)
76. Why We Fight (2005)
77. Winged Migration (2002)
78. The Aristocrats (2005)
79. Last Train Home (2009)
80. The Atomic Cafe (1982)
81. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)
82. Wordplay (2006)
83. Burden of Dreams (1982)
84. Monterey Pop (1968)
85. The Battle of Chile (1975-1979)
86. The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (2003)
87. Gasland (2010)
88. The Interrupters (2011)
89. Catfish (2010)
90. The Endless Summer (1966)
91. Marwencol (2010)
92. If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (2011)
93. Triumph of the Will (1934)
94. King Corn (2007)
95. Madonna: Truth or Dare (1991)
96. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005)
97. Sweetgrass (2009)
98. The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)
99. The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
100. Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (1997)

Pixies, "Where is My Mind" and second chances in life

 I'm so glad I go to see the Pixies on their most recent tour, when they played the album "Doolittle." They were hugely influential, if not as commercially successful as some other bands, but broke up for a while.  I missed knowing about them their first time around, in the late eighties: too busy finishing my PhD and trying to get a job. So, thanks to Rick, who snagged tickets and took me along. Their show was insanely great.

Their generous web site has boatloads of material you can download for free: live concerts, great stuff.

Live, 1988 "Where is My Mind"


loudQUIETloud is a documentary about the band's reunion in 2004. I found it totally engrossing, because it is a portrait of a second act in life, for people who have been through recovery, started new lives, had children, and who still can create that magic when they go out on stage together, even if they are not best friends when they are off stage.


This British Channel 4 documentary "Gouge" interviews many musicians about how hearing Pixies in the late '80s influenced them. Is not David Bowie mesmerizing? He's so intelligent, and so beautiful.


 Not enough Kim Deal, though. Gotta fix that: