More and more filmmakers are using the growing genre of expos?(c) documentary as a platform for their political outcries. "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Outfoxed" are just two films of the last year to make political statements.
Greg Spotts's "American Jobs" also uses the silver screen as a soapbox. The film takes an in-depth look at the relatively ignored subject of outsourcing, the corporate act of eliminating and transferring American jobs to foreign countries for cheap labor.
"American Jobs" was released on DVD on Labor Day and was shown at the Student Union Theatre Monday as part of a nationwide screening tour by Spotts.
The film is Greg Spotts's first crack at filmmaking. He wrote, directed and produced the documentary for less than $50,000 by using his own equipment and no crew.
In the film, Spotts travels to 19 different American cities, compiling a data set to investigate the effects of outsourcing on our society.
In Kannapolis, N.C., Spotts interviewed workers that were laid off from the local textile mill, Pillowtex, one of the economic pillars of the city. Cheaper foreign competition forced Pillowtex to close its doors, and forced its workers onto the streets. The closing crippled Kannapolis, which is now rapidly descending into a state of ghostliness.
The film points out that job security is no safer if you have an education or a well-paying job. Myra Bronstein, a tech worker in Seattle, once paid over $75,000 annually, had to train the very people replacing her.
Spotts claims that such tactless treatment of American workers is becoming more frequent. And, he says, it doesn't matter if your collar is blue or white.
"The global economy is making no distinction between whether you are a textile worker making Fruit of the Loom underwear or whether you are a computer programmer making an Oracle or Microsoft product," says Marcus Courtney, a Washtech Labor Organizer.
Spotts does a superior job educating the viewer in outsourcing and all of its repercussions. However, where it succeeds in educating, it fails in entertaining.
The film is much like Michael Moore's "Roger and Me" in that Spotts hits America's corporately created slums and he champions the cause of the American worker. But Spotts doesn't have the comedic juices to make an audience laugh with America's most destitute. He also does not chase after the corporate fat cats responsible for putting Americans out of work.
The camerawork, editing and music give the practically unbudgeted movie a professional, production studio feel. However, the computer graphics in his global map sequences seem a little dated and dull. But one cannot expect advanced CGI on a $50,000 budget.
Spotts, from California, has omitted any scent of Hollywood cheese or drama from his film. Although this exclusion gives the movie a more credible and professional feel, it detracts from evoking feelings of anger, compassion, or sorrow that other mainstream documentaries succeed in wrenching from their audience. It is this emotive reaction that makes an expos?(c) effective.
But Spotts knows this. His goal with "American Jobs" is not to create a big Hollywood production, complete with red carpet and Oscar-winning moments. His objective is simply to create an open dialogue on an oft-overlooked and distressing topic. With that, he has succeeded admirably.
