092622_GYS_2022_ONLINE

GU I D E to Y E L L OW S P R I NG S | 2O22 – 2O23 57 Each year the International Documentary Association, a professional group for docu- mentary filmmakers, selects a filmmaker to receive its high - est honor, the Career Achieve - ment Award. The award spot - lights someone who has had a significant impact on filmmak - ing, according to IDA Execu - tive Director Simon Kilmurry. The process for choosing the winner is intense, with the IDA board considering seven or eight esteemed docu- mentarians before making a decision. But in 2018, the board voted unanimously, he said. The award was given to Yellow Springs filmmaker Julia Reichert. “Julia’s work more than qualifies,” Kilmurry told the News in a 2018 interview. When he watched several of Reichert’s films, he said, “Something struck me. It was how intensely patriotic and democratic the films are, in the best sense of those words. The films are calling us to be our best selves.” Reichert is also singular in her choice of subject, he said, noting that many of her films spotlight women, blue-collar workers or others who exist outside American power cen- ters. By focusing her camera on these often-overlooked lives, “her films show what documentaries do well, by lifting up lives that have been marginalized,” he said. As an example, Kilmurry pointed to “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant,” the 2009 film Reichert and Steven Bognar made that followed the lives of workers when a Moraine GM plant closed down, and one of four films in Reichert’s career to be nomi - nated for an Academy Award. “No one else would have made that film,” he said, calling Reichert’s body of work “a testament to her commitment to those stories, the ones we don’t focus on often enough.” Reichert and Bognar returned to Moraine from 2015 to 2017 to film “Ameri - can Factory,” which again followed the lives of workers in the Moraine Assembly plant Julia Reichert— A LIFETIME DEDICATED TO FILM By DIANE CHIDDISTER From December 2018 ▲ Villagers and filmmakers Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, where they premiered their documentary, “American Factory.” The film won an Oscar in 2020. DON’T MISS THIS FUN SHOP! EMPORIUM 253C Xenia Ave. (Across from US Bank, down the alley) 10 Shoppes in 1 Unique Artisan Treasures Something for Everyone HEAVENLY TREASURES FOR EARTHLY BODIES