BW Online | September 10, 2004 | The Story of American Jobs
BW Online | September 10, 2004 | The Story of American Jobs
The Story of American Jobs
Director Greg Spotts takes on offshoring, warning that it may make the American dream "more of a myth than an accessible reality"
The success of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, the highest-grossing documentary in history, has ushered in a burst of feature-length political offerings in the same field. The list's newest addition is a low-budget take on outsourcing by freelance TV producer Greg Spotts, 36, who hit the road with a cheap video camera and $50,000 in savings, after realizing how many of his pals were out of work. His quest? To see what happens to U.S. citizens when their jobs migrate overseas.
His film, American Jobs, premieres Sept. 9 in the decimated factory town of Kannapolis, North Carolina -- his first stop back in February -- followed by screenings nationwide. The movie, available on DVD for $11.95, draws on workers' voices from 19 cities where people have lost their jobs to outsourcing. The film's unemployed subjects run the gamut, Spotts says, from pickup-truck-driving factory workers in North Carolina to latte drinking, BMW-driving software programmers in Seattle.
The Story of American Jobs
Director Greg Spotts takes on offshoring, warning that it may make the American dream "more of a myth than an accessible reality"
The success of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, the highest-grossing documentary in history, has ushered in a burst of feature-length political offerings in the same field. The list's newest addition is a low-budget take on outsourcing by freelance TV producer Greg Spotts, 36, who hit the road with a cheap video camera and $50,000 in savings, after realizing how many of his pals were out of work. His quest? To see what happens to U.S. citizens when their jobs migrate overseas.
His film, American Jobs, premieres Sept. 9 in the decimated factory town of Kannapolis, North Carolina -- his first stop back in February -- followed by screenings nationwide. The movie, available on DVD for $11.95, draws on workers' voices from 19 cities where people have lost their jobs to outsourcing. The film's unemployed subjects run the gamut, Spotts says, from pickup-truck-driving factory workers in North Carolina to latte drinking, BMW-driving software programmers in Seattle.