[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 190 (Wednesday, December 7, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7016-S7017]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Remembering Julia Reichert

  Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Julia 
Reichert, an award-winning filmmaker, activist, and Ohioan whom we lost 
last week.
  Julia was born in New Jersey, but she moved to Yellow Springs, OH, in 
Greene County to attend Antioch College where her interests in activism 
and storytelling emerged--interests that led her to become a strong, 
well-known voice for working Americans.
  During her time at Antioch, she combined her passions by hosting a 
feminist program on the campus radio station and making ``Growing up 
Female,'' a groundbreaking feminist documentary that explored the 
socialization of women. Decades later, it would be added to the 
National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
  After college, Julia made Dayton her home as her work gained national 
attention. Her documentaries ``Union Maids''--M-A-I-D-S--which followed 
women active in the Chicago labor movement, and ``Seeing Red'' were 
both nominated for Academy Awards.
  Her 2010 film ``The Last Truck'' followed the workers at a GM plant 
in Moraine, OH, as they built their final truck and the plant closed 
down. The film became the prologue for her Academy Award-winning 
documentary ``American Factory,'' which focused on the next chapter of 
that GM plant after a Chinese company bought it.
  In ``American Factory,'' Julia took a global story; she made it 
local; she made it understandable; and she made it very popular. She 
gave a voice to the workers and the communities overlooked by the 
headlines, which happens all too often with a plant closing.
  In her films and documentaries, as she explored feminism and family, 
labor and politics, globalism and the economy, she took these big ideas 
and showed what they meant on a human level. Julia had a unique 
ability--an extraordinary ability--to connect with all kinds of people 
and tell their stories in respectful, empathetic, and understandable 
ways.

[[Page S7017]]

  She highlighted issues that were often overlooked. Her work sparked 
important conversations. People who watched these films had really no 
idea what it was like to be these workers until they understood so much 
more when they came to the theater and watched these.
  Julia also taught at Wright State University in Dayton, serving as a 
mentor to the next generation of filmmakers. She instilled in her 
students that no matter where they came from or who they were, they 
have a voice and a story to tell--no matter who they were or where they 
came from, how little wealth their family might have had, they have a 
voice and a story to tell. And it is up to us to listen to those 
stories. They remember her genuine interest in their lives outside of 
the classroom. She cared about them. That is who Julia was.
  She was a champion of the labor movement, the feminist movement, and 
an extraordinarily talented storyteller. She was a friend, a mother, 
and a mentor. Our world is a better place, not just Southwest Ohio from 
whence she came, but our State, our whole country is a better place 
because of Julia and her work.
  Julia's husband and fellow filmmaker Steven, whom I know, and her 
daughter Lela, whom I have met and is an activist just like her mother, 
they will together uphold--as I will try to do--uphold Julia's legacy 
and will continue her work.
  Today our thoughts are with Steven and Lela, Julia's friends and 
family, and all those who knew her and loved her and so appreciated her 
and had the privilege of working alongside her.
  I yield the floor.