R.I.P. Julia Reichert, Oscar-winning documentarian

Julia Reichert, the filmmaker behind the Oscar-winning documentary American Factory, has died, according to The New York Times. An activist and dedicated chronicler of the American working class, Reichert passed away following a years-long battle with urothelial cancer—she had previously been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2006, which went into remission that same year. She was 76 years old.

Reichert began her 50-year career after taking a class under the experimental filmmaker David Brooks at Antioch College, where she made her first film, Growing Up Female, which she made with future husband Jim Klein. That film was selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry in 2011, per the NYT. Together, Reichert and Klein founded New Day Films and collaborated on Methadone–An American Way Of Dealing, Union Maids, and Seeing Red: Stories Of American Communists, with the latter two nominated for Academy Awards.

After her divorce from Klein, Reichert went on to direct her only narrative feature, Emma & Elvis, co-written with her partner Steven Bognar. The pair went on to collaborate on A Lion In The House, a feature about childhood cancer that won a Primetime Emmy Award, The Last Truck: Closing Of A GM Plant, produced by Barack and Michelle Obama and nominated for an Academy Award, American Factory, her first Oscar win after four nominations, and 9to5: The Story Of A Movement, among other projects (including Dave Chappelle’s 2020 pandemic special, Dave Chappelle: Live in Real Life).

Reichert also served as a professor for more than two decades at Wright State University, where she and Klein had started a filmmaking program. Per IndieWire, she was a founding member of the Indie Caucus, “an action group that worked to keep independent documentaries on PBS.” A champion of progressive ideals in front of and behind the camera, she ended her 2020 Oscars acceptance speech by quoting the Communist Manifesto. “Working people have it harder and harder these days,” she said, “but we believe things will get better when workers of the world unite.”

Reichert is survived by Bognar, her daughter Lela Klein, and two grandchildren.