Oscar winners thank the Kentucky State AFL-CIO

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT Local 1360

When they step to the microphone on Oscar night, Academy Award recipients traditionally thank people who helped them win movieland's top prize.

The creators of American Factory, which earned this year's Oscar for Best Documentary, emailed their thanks to several supporting organizations and groups, including the Kentucky State AFL-CIO.  

Last September, the labor federation helped publicize a free special screening in Louisville, the first stop on American Factory's nationwide tour. 

The screening was co-hosted by the Labor and Employment Law Society, a student organization at the University of Louisville School of Law. The Netflix film focuses on workers' rights in the global economy.

"You were a part of more than 80 organizations and hundreds of groups around the world supporting an equitable future of work alongside the documentary," said the email to Jeff Wiggins, secretary-treasurer.

The email also invited the state AFL-CIO to spread the good news on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Participant/status/1226690543259811843?s=20 and 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParticipantMedia/videos/487842628816098/  

The film is about a Chinese-based company's auto glass factory in Moraine, Ohio, a Dayton suburb. It is the first film by Higher Ground Productions, former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama's production company. 

American Factory premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, where it was well received. Last year, too, the film earned the Best Documentary Feature Award at the River Run International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C. 

IndieWire's Eric Kohn called the film "a fascinating tragicomedy about the incompatibility of American and Chinese industries." American Worker "gestures toward the end of the working world we know – and to the rise of the machines," according to David Edelstein, senior movie critic at Vulture.