Last night I had the opportunity to watch a screening on campus of a powerful documentary, shot in nearby Moraine, Ohio, which chronicles the last months of the General Motors plant there as it faced closure.
“The Last Truck” was co-written and directed by two-time Oscar nominee and Wright State University film professor Julia Reichert, along with her partner Steven Bognar. The two are homespun Ohio filmmakers if there ever was one, and they started filming the documentary the same day in June 2008 when the announcement was made that GM intended to close the plant. HBO partnered with the two, aired the documentary and helped with distribution and funding.
But despite their local roots and ties to the Dayton area, Reichert and Bognar have no part in the film and leave the narration entirely to the workers, who struggle to keep composure throughout and apologize often and earnestly during emotional interviews. Workers are most often seen talking from the open window of their car, in the parking lot before clocking in or on their way home after work. What’s most interesting about the movie is how it was filmed: Reichert and Bognar were granted access inside the factory for only 30 minutes in the six months they spent filming, so they equipped three workers with handheld ‘flip’ cameras that look more like cell-phones than documentary caliber video cameras, and set them loose. The footage the employees brought back, however, was remarkable. We see scenes from the assembly line, where smiling employees work 9 to 10 hour days wiring SUVs or riveting hinges onto door-frames. We hear the din of factory work and machines as employees monitor the production of a new truck almost every minute. And, most importantly, we see a family of workers as they cope with the bitter reality that they are slowly working toward that ‘last truck,’ and when it comes, we see that, too.
Bognar and two employees from the plant— one of which is featured prominently in the film—came to campus last night to present the movie and answer questions (Reichert apparently has the Swine Flu). They talked about the political aspects that likely led to the plant’s closing, about the relationship between management and the filmmakers, and about the state of the middle-class in America today. All three were engaging and fascinating to talk with.
The correlation between Moraine and Wilmington is striking. Both communities relied heavily on the security and well-paying jobs of a single employer, and both were devastated when the economy turned downward and the jobs dissolved. Bognar even intended to make the film both about Moraine and Wilmington, but HBO thought the GM story was more compelling and suggested he stick with one storyline.
Despite the similarities, one glaring difference surfaced when a student asked Popeye, one of the employees, if Moraine rallied around the laid-off workers like Wilmington has here.
He laughed and shook his head, acknowledging that the small-town, community mentality didn’t and doesn’t exist in Moraine.
“All we had were each other,” he said.
Thankfully, that’s not the case here.
Here is a review of the film which appeared in the New York Times, and here is one from the Washington Post.
