John Girdwood(I)
- Director
- Writer
- Cinematographer
Born in an industrial Michigan city, Girdwood quickly realized the
difference between blue and white collar workers. Lansing, Michigan was
the place of General Motors factories and the State Capitol. When his
family moved to the suburbs of Lansing, he was introduced to a new
middle-class system of education and jobs. His mother took him to her
grad school classes at Michigan State and Girdwood saw another approach
to progress: academia. The institutional mixture of industry,
government, and labor formed Girdwood's sociological perspective.
Surprisingly, he never enrolled in a sociology course until he was
accepted as a doctoral candidate at Michigan State. Driven by an
industrial work ethic, Girdwood now uses media to convey his
perspective of the changing American economy. When the factories close,
Girdwood doesn't just tell the sad story of the negative impact.
Instead, he provides an optimistic set of potential solutions.