Filmmakers reflect on road to Oscar gold
Julia Reichert opens up about her journey with cancer during some of the biggest moments of her career.
It is not every day that a former president gives local residents a shout-out on Twitter.
That day was Monday, Jan. 13, and the reason was major.
Barack Obama praised Yellow Springs residents Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert and the rest of the team behind “American Factory” shortly after the film was announced as a nominee for the Academy Awards in the documentary feature category.
The 92nd annual Academy Awards ceremony is set for 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, and will air on ABC.
It was the fourth nomination for Reichert, an Emmy winner considered the godmother of the American independent film movement, and a second for Bognar, her partner of more the 30 years.
“American Factory’s” nomination was also big for Obama and
his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama.
Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, in partnership with Netflix, acquired “American Factory” in April 2019.
The road to Oscar gold has not been an easy one for Reichert.
She recently completed a round of chemotherapy and has had many painful days since being diagnosed in May 2018 with nested variant urothelial carcinoma, a rare and deadly cancer.
“I did chemo, and it went into remission. It came back in October of this year,” she said.
She told this news organization she is fighting with the help of Bognar, her daughter Lela Klein and a host of family and friends.
The months leading up to the Oscar nomination have included elaborate movie screenings organized by Netflix, a meeting with the Obamas, interviews and award ceremonies.
Bognar and Reichert are touring the country as part of the series “Julia Reichert: 50 Years in Film.”
The retrospective has included stops at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as well as museums in Cleveland, Los Angeles, Portland and Madison Wisconsin.
Reichert, who made “Growing Up Female” — her first film — as a student at Antioch College, said she’d like for the retrospective to be shown in Dayton.
“It has been really hard with this cancer fight to do everything, but I am very hopeful that I will get some more good times and not be sick,” she said, noting the new therapies. “I could not do it without Lela and Steve.”
Reichert and Bognar, both of whom have taught at Wright State University, said that “American Factory” was a local story made with the help of people with strong ties to this community.
“This film happened because of the incredible support we get from everyone in Dayton, Ohio,” said Bognar, a Beavercreek native. “We are proud to be from
Dayton, Ohio, today, and we are grateful to be able to represent our town at the big show.”
Aubrey Keith, Erick Stoll, Liz Yong Lowe, David Holm and Eric Risher — all graduates of Wright’s State’s Motion Picture Program — worked on the film.
Reichert and Bognar also noted the work of “American Factory” editor Lindsay Utz, producer Jeff Reichert and Chinese-based co-producers Yiqian Zhang and Mijie LI.
They say the project that led to “American Factory” was sparked by Jeff Hoagland of the Dayton Development Coalition and J.P. Nauseef of JobsOhio.
“American Factory” follows the creation of the Chinese-owned automotive glass-factory Fuyao Glass America in the same building that had once housed a General Motors assembly operation in Moraine.
Bognar and Reichert, a Yellow Springs couple together for more than 30 years, received an Academy Award nomination in the “Best Documentary (short subject)” category for their 2009 HBO film “The Last
Truck” about the closing of that very same GM plant in Moraine.
Each of Reichert’s Oscarnominated documentaries told the story of workers.
Aside from “Last Truck” and “American Factory,” she was nominated for the first time in 1978 with James Klein and Miles Mogulescu for “Union Maids,” and again with Klein in 1984 for “Seeing Red.”
“We believe there are not enough stories of Midwest people and working people — people who punch a clock every day,” Reichert said. “(The Oscar nomination) says that Midwestern working people and their stories matter.”
Obama’s tweet echoed those sentiments.
“Glad to see American Factory’s Oscar nod for Best Documentary. It’s the kind of story we don’t see often enough and it’s exactly what Michelle and I hope to achieve with Higher Ground. Congrats to the incredible filmmakers and entire team,” he wrote.