Inside the High-Stakes Quest to Make ‘American Factory’ a Documentary Hit
Julia Reichert’s film wants to change hearts and minds—and won an Oscar in the process
Julia Reichert hugged the 16mm print of her first film, Growing Up Female, to her side as she crossed the country by Greyhound bus in 1971. Each tour stop began in a living room, where a handful of women watched people a lot like themselves talk on-screen about their experiences of female socialization in American life. There was no link to send, no DVD to burn — if they wanted to share the film, they had to keep Reichert and her print in town long enough to stage a larger screening.
Growing Up Female follows women as they go about their routines at home and work, and they tell Reichert about their perceptions, frustrations, and how they’d found themselves trapped in boxes that looked like choices: family obligations that prevented them from getting an education that might lead to a better job, unfulfilling roles at home, pointless competition against other women for “the most boyfriends.” And while Reichert the interviewer asks deceptively simple questions, her message is made explicit in voiceover, in which she asks, in part, “What has become of the American woman, if unquestioning little girls accept offerings of dolls and makeup kits, and young…
