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Julia Reichert, the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker behind “American Factory” whose films explored themes of race, class and gender, often in the Midwest, has died. She was 76.
She died Thursday night in Ohio from cancer, her family said Friday through a representative. She was diagnosed with stage four urothelial cancer in April 2018.
Often called the “godmother of American independent documentaries,” Reichart told the stories of ordinary Americans, from autoworkers dealing with both plant closures (2009’s “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant”) and foreign investors (2019’s “American Factory”), to members of the American Communist Party (1983’s “Seeing Red”) to female labor activists in the 1930s (1976’s “Union Maids”).
In her 50 years of filmmaking, Reichert won two Primetime Emmy Awards and was nominated for four Oscars, winning one with her partner Steven Bognar for “American Factory” in 2020. She quoted “The Communist Manifesto” in her speech, saying “things will get better when workers of the world unite.”
She was also nominated for two Peabody Awards.
Veteran film producer Ira Deutchman wrote on Twitter that she was one of “the kindest, most generous people I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with.»
“Her spirit was so indominable that somehow I thought she would eventually triumph over her illness,” he added. «I will miss her so much.”
“RBG” director Julie Cohen tweeted that she was “reflecting on the life of a woman who made an enormous contribution to the world of documentary.
