The heart of the film provides a voice to unemployed families and individuals.

In American Jobs, first-time film-maker Greg Spotts looks firsthand at how offshoring is ripping jobs right out of competent, hard-working American hands. To find the answers he desires, he takes to the cities and towns of America and talks to its workers. He comes to find this loss of jobs as inexcusable and harmful to Americans; all the while made possible by ruthless corporations and a supporting government.

This is the basic premise. To tell the story, American Jobs relies on the power of interviews. Many are with recently laid-off individuals who give varying degrees of the same story: A steady, well paying job came to an abrupt end after their corporation prioritized profit over paying a comparatively high US wage. The interview subjects represent a diverse cross-section of the American labor market and range from garment workers to aircraft machinists to senior systems analysts. The film also includes interviews with unionists, various politicians, activists, economists, corporate figures, a pastor and more.

Inspiration came after Spotts watched many close friends fall into unemployment at the mercy of offshoring, a term describing when ones business relocates to another country. In a simple and direct style, he emphasizes the dialogue of his interview subjects rather than attempting any splashy effects or fancy editing. The result is a film that is aesthetically smooth and pleasing to watch, if not slightly bland. Spotts spent four months in the first half of 2004 visiting 19 US cities, to gather over eighty hours of footage for the film.

Inspiration for the film came after Spotts watched many close friends fall into unemployment at the mercy of offshoring.

The individuals he talks to put a human face to the massive shifts in the US labor market. In 1953 the manufacturing industry accounted for approximately 30 percent of the US GDP. However, in 2003 manufacturing had plummeted to just under 13 percent. The situation these statistics have created form the backbone of the films purpose and drive it forward.

Spotts, also the narrator, exposes where he sees offshoring robbing citizens of the American dream and undermining traditional values. Such a case is in rural Kannapolis, North Carolina, where a large textile mill was the source of job security for generations until it closed within twelve months before Spotts arrived. Since the mill's closing, the townspeople's financial and health problems have skyrocketed, and poverty has seeped in.

The film points out the nearly comical ironies that face the American consumer culture. Brands that have built themselves as being decidedly "American," such as Levi Strauss, Master Lock, and Mr. Coffee are now not even made in the US. Further damaging to the soul of American manufacturing, military berets for the US army and Border Patrol uniforms are being produced respectively in China and Mexico.

The heart of the film provides a voice to unemployed families and individuals. The subjects are shocked, saddened and angered over what has befallen them at the hands of the companies they had served for years.

The film points out the nearly comical ironies that face the American consumer culture.

Spotts shares the story of Myra Bronstein, a software engineer near Seattle, Washington. Myra lost her job abruptly when her company decided to move its high-tech workers to India. To make matters worse, she was informed of her termination on a Friday and her replacements arrived the following Monday for training. Myra concedes the inability of US companies to compete upon realizing that her single person salary could hire 16 employees in India.

In Kannapolis, North Carolina, a family whose jobs had been lost to overseas competition can no longer afford to buy American made products. They are now forced to shop at the dollar store where the bulk of the products are made in China and other foreign countries. Aware but helpless to the hypocrisy, they now support the very industries that took their jobs.

It is no better for Pat Fluno, Mike Emmons, and James Granberry, formerly of Siemens. Each employee had over ten years experience with Siemens before their jobs were outsourced to Indian workers. To add insult to injury, the three had to personally train their replacements - many of which were desperately lacking in experience. Mike Emmons, a web developer, is notably frustrated when he describes finding his replacement reading an introductory manual to the field of which he had over 14 years of experience.

"Desperate to find some hope," as Spotts puts it, he visits politicians and citizen activists who are pushing to keep jobs in America. He speaks to a senator from Connecticut proposing a bill to cap the annual amount of Visas given to foreign workers and force companies to pay prevailing wages. He also interviews citizen activists in Denver, Colorado, who are gathering signatures to amend the Colorado constitution to hire only American citizens. But far from describing any kind of convincing plan to stem offshoring, these examples merely suggest that momentum may be growing as the American public becomes more outraged.

The dangers of the protectionism that Spotts is advocating for deserves mention, as many believe this kind of isolation will ultimately cause far greater harm than good.

American Jobs documents a pressing issue that is all-too relevant to the American workforce, many of which are in fear of losing their jobs. In addition, the use of honest Americans who, through no fault of their own, are now unemployed is an almost inarguable platform to launch ones argument. Who would say these people deserved what they had coming? However, what the film painfully lacks is the voice of opposition. All of the interviews (except one with the VP of Apex digital, a cheap electronics company), are with those who agree that offshoring is an altogether bad thing.

What we don't hear even acknowledged is the pervasive and popular free market standpoint. There are countless politicians, economists, and more that speak to the potentially positive effects a globalized and open workforce can bring to the world. In addition, the dangers of the protectionism that Spotts is advocating for deserves mention, as many believe this kind of isolation will ultimately cause far greater harm than good.

The viewer is left wanting to hear from all the stakeholders. What about the foreign workers themselves? These individuals can surely offer their take on being resented for coming from a poor country and finding a well-paying job. If this then points to the corporations as responsible, then we should hear from them in the form of more than one corporate figurehead.

This unbalanced presentation calls into question some of the films strengths, which are many. American Jobs gives a crisp, in-depth analysis of a threatened American workforce, a topic of interest and concern for everybody. For this reason alone, it is more than a worthy watch. However, if it acknowledged some of the complicating factors that inform the argument as a whole, it would give the viewer the scope necessary to formulate an opinion. Unfortunately, what we experience is virtually the exclusive vision of the producer and the proponents of his cause.

To rent American Jobs and to learn more about the Film Connection, visit www.thefilmconnection.org.




Contributed by Dave Zook, Portland, OR area writer for Global Envision.

To read another Global Envision article about the outsourcing debate, see The Challenges of Outsourcing.



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