{"id":147056,"date":"2022-12-03T15:36:58","date_gmt":"2022-12-03T15:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/julia-reichert-dead-american-factory-documentarian-was-76\/"},"modified":"2022-12-03T15:36:58","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T15:36:58","slug":"julia-reichert-dead-american-factory-documentarian-was-76","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/julia-reichert-dead-american-factory-documentarian-was-76\/","title":{"rendered":"Julia Reichert Dead: ‘American Factory’ Documentarian Was 76"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n

\tJulia Reichert, the veteran documentarian who won an Oscar in 2020 for her feature \u201cAmerican Factory,\u201d died on Dec. 1 due to cancer, variety<\/em> has confirmed. She was 76.<\/p>\n

\n

\tAcross her more than 50 years as a filmmaker, Reichert received four Academy Award nominations and one win, two Primetime Emmys, a Director’s Guild Award and two Peabody Award nods. Her documentaries, including Oscar nominees \u201cUnion Maids,\u201d \u201cSeeing Red: Stories of American Communists\u201d and \u201cThe Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant,\u201d dealt with themes of gender, class, race and the global economy.<\/p>\n

\n

\tReichert and her partner Steven Bognar frequently collaborated together, including on their best documentary feature winner \u201cAmerican Factory,\u201d \u201cDave Chappelle: Live in Real Life,\u201d \u201c8:46,\u201d \u201c9to5: The Story of a Movement,\u201d \u201cMaking Morning Star,\u201d \u201cSparkle,\u201d \u201cThe Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant\u201d and \u201cA Lion in the House.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n

\tAfter being born and raised in Bordtentown Township, NJ, Reichert graduated from Antioch College in 1970 \u2014 after briefly dropping out to hitchhike to California during the late ’60s \u2014 and released her first documentary, \u201cGrowing Up Female,\u201d in 1971. The film detailed the socialization of women at different points in their lives and was the first documentary of the Women’s Liberation Movement. It was selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry in 2011. <\/p>\n

\n

\tIn a 2020 interview with variety<\/em>Reichert recalled the moment she found out her 1976 documentary, \u201cUnion Maids,\u201d was nominated for an Oscar while she was living in a political community in Ohio.<\/p>\n

\n

\t\u201cWe didn’t even know we were in the running,\u201d she said. \u201cWe were bowled over and like, ‘Holy shit.’ At that point, we were very young leftists, so Hollywood was not something we admired.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\tAfter two more nominations in 1984 and 2010, she finally took home the Oscar in 2020 for \u201cAmerican Factory,\u201d about the clash of cultures when a Chinese company reopens a shuttered GM plant in Moraine, Ohio. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020, where it won best director of a US documentary, and was later picked up by Netflix and the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions as the company’s first acquired title.<\/p>\n

\n

\tShe and Bognar followed that up with 2020’s \u201c9to5: The Story of a Movement,\u201d about the National Association of Working Women, and two projects with comedian Dave Chappelle. Together, they made the critically acclaimed performance special \u201c8:46,\u201d about the murder of George Floyd, and the unreleased \u201cDave Chappelle: Live in Real Life,\u201d about the comedian’s performances during the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests.<\/p>\n

\n

\tIn addition to her filmmaking, Reichert was a professor of film production at Wright State University for 28 years.<\/p>\n

\n

\t\u201cJulia Reichert is one of the most important and influential faculty members [Wright State University] has ever known,\u201d Joe Deer, artistic director of the Wright State Theater in the School of Fine and Performing Arts, said in a statement. \u201cWhat makes her such an impactful educator and mentor is that she’s spent her life telling the stories of everyday, overlooked people with compassion and real appreciation for their dreams and struggles. And many of those stories are told in our own backyard \u2014 hospitals in Cincinnati, workers in Dayton, her neighbors in Yellow Springs. I’m personally so grateful for my years watching her work, talking about teaching and just being inspired by her energy and vision. \u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\tReichert said of her cancer diagnosis to variety<\/em>: \u201cWhat I have is actually incurable and fatal, but I don’t feel daunted by that. I feel like, OK, I’ve accepted that I’m not going to see my grandkids go to college or probably even go to high school because they’re fairly little, 6 and 9. I understand that now, and that’s my life \u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\tShe is survived by Bognar, daughter Lela Klein Holt, three brothers, two grandchildren and a nephew.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n