Educational Media Reviews Online

When the General Motors plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, closed in 2008, the community found itself in near economic ruin. Facing massive unemployment, a core of local entrepreneurs, called Janesville Forward, sought to stimulate business in the area, with initiatives such as business plan contests and Rock County 5.0. These visionaries, however, saw the advantages of non-unionized labor, and quickly allied themselves with Republican candidate for Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker. Not long after Walker was elected in 2011, he began initiatives to end collective bargaining with public workers, dealing serious blows to labor unions in Wisconsin. The documentary then shifts focus to the political struggle between organized labor and Governor Walker, ending with an unsuccessful recall vote to remove him.

The film is filled with accounts of the unemployed and those who relocated with GM, and interspersing developments among these families. Some of these episodes are positively heartbreaking. The film does an excellent job of exhibiting how people live with risk and deal with difficult life-choices. Boldly contrary to the conventional conservative perspective on the unemployed, this documentary details the stories of people striving and sacrificing in order to complete college before their unemployment benefits run out. Equally intermixed in this film is a narrative of a Democratic Representative of Wisconsin, encompassing his campaign and his compromises during this dilemma.

Stylistically, this documentary was extremely well produced and directed, with a well-accented original score. It delivers subtle but stern visual messages, as in the case of a shot of a man briskly changing the door lock on a foreclosed home during the discussion of economic strife. The film is energetic and intense, while remaining very well paced.

This documentary truly jars the audience, first by providing the story of the boom years of GM and Janesville, dating back to 1928, then shifts to frustration and despair at the closing of the plant and its fallout. The film returns to optimism with examples of local entrepreneurship, then returns to despair with its account of union busting attempts. As Goes Janesville provides utmost balance in its exploration of such volatile issues as organized labor, union busting, and benefits for the unemployed, making an ideal foundation for debate.

Awards

• Winner, Best Documentary, Oregon Independent Film Festival
• Winner, Special Jury Award- Feature, Milwaukee Film Festival
• Winner, Best Documentary, Columbia George Film Festival
• Winner, Best Documentary, Independent Film Quarterly Festival