I’ve crossed paths with Julia Reichert and her husband and documentary co-conspirator Steve Bognar a few times. They turned their lens and considerable story-telling skills to the former General Motors plant in Moraine and the Fuyao Glass America complex, two plants (one site, technically) on my beat. If you refrain from blinking, you can spot me for about a second and a half in the couple’s Netflix documentary, “American Factory.” (If you blink, you’re not missing much.)
Reichert lost her battle with cancer in December 2022. But there were (and are) no other filmmakers better able to capture the national and global zeitgeist by focusing on businesses here in the Dayton area.
She is missed.
Documentary about filmmaker Julia Reichert to air on Netflix in December
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
Spotlight: “Julia’s Stepping Stones,” a documentary chronicling Academy and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Julia Reichert’s influential career, has been acquired by Netflix to premiere Dec. 18.
A story worth telling: “I am so excited and grateful because Julia’s story is going to be all over the world,” said Steve Bognar, Reichert’s husband and longtime collaborator. “Her story, her voice, is going to be translated into 60 different languages. This film was a real labor of love and also an act of grieving because I was missing her. I got to hear her voice and see her face in photos and archival home movies. Working on the film was a way for me to cope with the loss.”
Law firm with Dayton offices stretches west, boosts revenue
Taft law firm, which has a downtown Dayton office with more than 60 employees, is boosting its headcount and revenue stream.
What happened: Taft is combining with a Denver law firm, Sherman & Howard LLC, the local firm said this week.
The numbers: With the addition of the Denver firm’s approximately 125 attorneys, Taft will have more than 1,000 attorneys, from Washington, D.C. to the Mountain West region.
The move raises Taft’s projected 2024 combined revenues to $810 million, and its projected 2025 revenues to $875 million, the firm said.
Huber Heights company Trimble on growth path
Trimble makes devices that help industrial customers and operators of heavy machinery know where they are in construction, agriculture and other fields.
Key number: Trimble President and Chief Executive Rob Painter said the company’s annualized recurring revenue — a metric that measures predictable revenue — reached a record $2.11 billion in second quarter results last month.
The latest: “We’re doing well,” Jeff Drake, Trimble’s director of emerging market solutions in the civil construction field systems business, told me this week. “We’ve had a number of new product releases ... it’s a great time to be in the industry.”
Two restaurants asked for help on social media. Customers responded
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
The direct (but professional) approach is sometimes best.
A couple of Dayton restaurants needed more customers to come in. So proprietors turned to social media to ask for help.
Customers were happy to respond.
Lesson learned: “I just took that lesson as, if you’re transparent with your community, they will come and support you,” said Rachel Gannon, owner of The Local 937 in the St. Anne’s Hill neighborhood.
Millions set aside for Wright-Patterson in spending packages
Aging runway: Here’s the situation, subject to change as always: Leaders at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base have spoken for some time of the need for runway work at the base. I’m told the runway was originally built in 1947.
However: At the moment, the Senate has funding for that work in its preliminary, still-to-be-finalized defense spending package. The House of Representatives does not.
Contact me: Thank you as always for reading this newsletter, wherever it finds you. You can tell me about your business at tom.gnau@coxinc.com. You can also find me on X (where direct messages are welcome) and on Facebook here. If you hang out at LinkedIn, so do I. See you there.
Quick hits
Retail space coming: To former Basil’s space in Beavercreek.
12 restaurants open, five closed: So far in September.
Navistar: Is no longer ‘Navistar.’
ODOT: Celebrates US 35 work.
Scariest House in America: is closer than you think.
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