Blogger Sandy is Rooting For the Documentary Produced by the Obamas to Win an Oscar – WAT?

This may be conclusive evidence: God has a sense of humor!

There is no reason why the Lord can’t have a sense of humor. Humans are created in the image of God and we can laugh at holy humor. And this little story ranks right up there with a hearty LOL!

American Factory is a feature documentary about when a Chinese company takes over a factory in Moraine, OH (not far from where Sandy the Blogger went to college over 40 years ago and stirred up trouble – protesting Jane Fonda and opposing the ERA – some things never change it seems!) and it is indeed the first production by a company, Higher Ground, that can be seen on Netflix.

Here is a small highlight:

Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, in partnership with Netflix, acquired “American Factory” in April 2019.

The Tweet reads: 

“Glad to see American Factory’s Oscar nod for Best Documentary. It’s the kind of story we don’t see often enough and it’s exactly what Michelle and I hope to achieve with Higher Ground. Congrats to the incredible filmmakers and entire team!”

So why are the 44th President and his wife and Sandy Sanders all rooting for the same film to win an Oscar? Are we all crazy?

Because the directors Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert are respectively an alum and a professor emeritus at Wright State University – where Blogger Sanders went to college! And recall last year when there was excitement in the Sanders home when the first WSU alum to win the statuette, Hannah Beachler, won an Oscar for Best Production Design category. The blogger took an old WSU pennant and cheered like crazy; he actually broke his rule: No Oscar watching (partly due to too much left-wing politics and no recognition of the only actor and Screen Actors Guild president to be elected President of the United States: Ronald Wilson Reagan) so Sandy tried to time it closely and only had to watch about 30 minutes before Beachler’s historic win.

Well the rule will have to be broken again! (There also is some faith-based Oscar excitement – in the Best Song category – “I’m Standing With You” from the movie Breakthrough. But recall that a few years ago a similar song from a faith-based movie was kicked out of the contention for alleged illegal campaigning. So we’ll wait and see!)

And, besides the Obama connection, American Factory has won some preliminary awards, including two Cinema Eye Honors Award, the Critic’s Choice Documentary Award for Best Political Documentary (Oh no!) and the Gotham Award.

So let’s dig out and sing the WSU fight song (here it is!) and get out that old pennant again!

We are tough,
We are great,
We are Wright State.
We will defeat every foe,
They will know, We are here,
When we all stand up and cheer…Victory
With our green and our gold,
Raiders onward,
We will fight right and be true,
So let’s go, fight, win.
Let the action begin,
We’re from W-S-U!

More irony:

“American Factory” received another feather in its cap this week when Washington Post movie critic Ann Hornaday named it the best movie of 2019 in her list of favorites. 

That splashing sound is the blogger dunking himself in battery acid! I think the existence of God – with sense of humor – has been proven!

Sunday February 9 at 8 pm are the Oscars. I’ll sing the fight song as I do the victory lap if Bognar and Reichert win.