Our six-part documentary comes to public TV and streaming in 2025 as a series of half-hour episodes. Over 30 former employees were interviewed, including designers, engineers, assembly line workers, salespeople, and two CEOs. Their memories, combined with hours of rare archive footage and thousands of historical photographs, bring to life the story of an iconic company during a period of rapid industry change.
The Six-Part Documentary Series
About the Rise and Fall of American Motors Corporation
In Production for 2025 Release
The Last Independent Automaker covers the rise and fall of American Motors Corporation, a car company that employed hundreds of thousands of people and built millions of vehicles from 1954 to 1987.

How to Help
Donations
Just like building a car, producing a documentary is a complex, time-consuming task. Thankfully, there are ways you can help. By making a donation to our crowdfunding campaign, you’re helping us preserve automotive history for generations to come. Every dollar will go toward the production costs for the series, including camera equipment, digital conversion of archive material, licensing costs for footage and music, legal fees, and more. Thank you for your support.
Creative Team
Joe Ligo
Joe is an Emmy Award-winning media producer. His webseries, AutoMoments, has reached over 7 million views. This success inspired the The Last Independent Automaker and the the goal to make the first in-depth documentary series on the history of American Motors Corporation.
Jimm Needle
Jimm is a digital media creator and entrepreneur with experience creating content for dozens of Fortune 500 companies across the nation. Each of Jimm’s ventures is deeply rooted in creative collaboration. Jimm loves to seek out new talent to create stellar media and relationships.
Patrick R. Foster
Patrick is one of America’s best known automotive historians, having written 34 books and over 800 magazine articles during his career. His work regularly appears in Hemmings Classic Car, Old Cars, Collectable Automobile, Crankshaft, and Vintage Truck magazines.