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The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant Living in Emergency: Stories of
documentar
40 minutes ■ 2009 ■ USA
Doctors Without Borders
Thursday 3:40p
■
Friday 10:10a
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Saturday 12:40p
■
Sunday 6:40p
93 minutes ■ 2009 ■ USA ■ In Competition
Thursday 12:40p
■
Friday 3:40p
■
Saturday 9:40p
■
Sunday 10:10a
Plays in: Oscar Shorts (p16)
Director: Mark Hopkins ■ Producers: Naisola Grimwood, Daniel Holton-Roth, Mark Hopkins
Directors: Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert ■ Producers: Steven Bognar, Lisa Heller, Julia
■ Executive Producers: Erika Bertin, Molly Conners, Shaana Diya, Geralyn Dreyfous, Mark
Reichert ■ Cinematographer/Editor: Steven Bognar, ■ Music/Composer: Tim Berger ■
Harris, Sarah Johnson, Christopher Woodrow ■ Cinematographer: Sebastian Ischer ■
Principal Cast: Kim Clay, Kathe Day, Kate Geiger, Popeye Hurst ■
Editors: Bob Eisenhardt, Sebastian Ischer, Douglas Rossini ■ Music/Composer: Bruno
ies
hbo.com/documentaries/the-last-truck-closing-of-a-gm-plant
Coulais ■ Principal Cast: Chris Brasher, Davinder Gill, Tom Krueger, Chiara Lepora ■
livinginemergency.com
On December 23, 2008 the General Motors assembly plant in
Moraine, Ohio shut its doors. 3,000 workers lost both their jobs
Filmed in the war-zones of Liberia and Congo with unprece-
and the camaraderie built through the years. To the natives of
dented access to the field operations of Doctors Without Bor-
Moraine and the greater Dayton area, GM wasn’t just a car com-
ders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the film follows four
pany—it was the lifeblood of the community.
volunteer doctors as they provide emergency medical care under
Four employees armed with cameras capture the final months:
extreme conditions. Two new recruits: a 26 year-old Australian
Kim, an electrician; Kathe in body shop; Kate, a forklift operator;
doctor in a remote bush clinic and an American surgeon in a
and Popeye, a toolmaker. Intimate interviews with people who
shattered captial city. Two experienced field hands: a dynamic 29
considered themselves more family than co-workers reveal the
Head of Mission trying to keep morale high and tensions under
emotional toll of losing not just a job, but a sense of self. This
control, and an exhausted veteran, who wants out.
Oscar-nominated film bears witness to the experience of job loss
Their ideals, perspectives, and motives are transformed over
and offers a snapshot of a moment that may portend the end of
time by their lives spent in the field, a journey that challenges
the nation’s blue-collar middle class.
and shapes a person’s views. Each volunteer must confront the
work and the limits of their own idealism. It is not a pretty film
Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert
about heroes or heroines. It is about the reality of aid work: blood
Director’s Statement (Julia Reichert)
and sweat, tough decisions and hard consequences, laughter and
tears, cigarettes and beer, arguments and all. [adult content, lan-
We live in Dayton, Ohio; this is
guage, subtitles, violence]
our community. Like everybody,
we heard the news that this huge
Mark Hopkins
GM plant was going to close, and
like so many others we were
Director’s Statement
shocked. We weren’t sure how or
Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar I have a strong interest in humanitarian af-
what would occur but we started
fairs, and have been following the work of
shooting. We just thought it would be about our community, for
MSF for many years. I felt they would make
our community. Not long after that GM was called before Con-
a great subject for a film in part because of
gress, the economy melted down and then GM went bankrupt.
their clear focus on emergency medical as-
We realized it was a story we had to tell.
sistance, an arena that brings out the most extreme nature of the
Director’s Statement (Steven Bognar)
challenges facing humanitarian actors.
I hope the film breaks any stereotypes people might still have
I hope people get sense of what life in the field is like for MSF
about the kind of people who work in factories. These folks are
doctors. Beyond that, hopefully an unburdened sense of interest
funny, wise, irreverent, sardonic, complicated, real people. And
in the humanitarian arena: an understanding that these guys are
we really hope the film conveys that feeling.
not heroes, they’re not saving the world, and that the work is en-
gaging and rewarding in its own right—it doesn’t need ideas of
Filmography: Bognar: Gravel, A Lion in the House, Personal Belongings, Picture Day;
big accomplishment to justify itself—the patient in front of you
Reichert: Emma & Elvis, Growing up Female, A Lion in the House, Methadone—An
is more than enough.
American Way of Dealing, Seeing Red, Union Maides
Filmography: Directorial Debut
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