Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Hollywood’s most-prized golden man is coming home to the Dayton area with a local couple who live in a village named for its spring.
Yellow Springs residents Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar — longtime pillars of Dayton’s art and film community — received the Oscar in the documentary feature category for their critically-acclaimed film “American Factory” at the Academy Award ceremony, Sunday, Feb. 9. They share the award with Jeff Reichert.
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The film edged out “The Cave,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “For Sama” and “Honeyland.”
Julia Reichert, a nationally acclaimed artist who has been called the godmother of the American independent film movement, is battling a rare and deadly cancer.
She and Bognar were exuberant during their acceptance speeches.
“Even before that envelope got opened, just being in the presence, in the company of our sister and brother documentarians who risked their lives making stories, bringing stories to us about hospitals being bombed in Syria, about Brazil, about Macedonia, we were so proud. We are inspired by you guys. Our film is from Ohio and China. Go Buckeyes! Sorry. But it really could be from anywhere that people put on a uniform and punch a clock, trying to make their families have a better life. Working people have it harder and harder these days. We believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite,” Reichert said.
Bognar said, “Thank you, Academy! Thank you to everyone who trusted us to tell your story. Junming Wang, thank you to our unstoppable crew, our beloved friends and family, Jeff Liu, our unstoppable editor Lindsay Utz, and to those big-hearted people at Netflix, Participant Media, Higher Ground Productions, and the tough, inventive, great people of Dayton, Ohio.”
Some of the stars of “American Factory” — Dayton-area residents and former and past Fuyao Glass workers Jill Lamantia, Shawnea Rosser-Carter, Robert “Bobby” Allen, Wong He and Rob Haerr — and their guests attended the ceremony.
