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Home > Blogs > Arts and Entertainment > Archives > 2010 > March > 07 > Entry
No Oscar for ‘Last Truck’
A Dayton-made documentary about the 2008 closing of General Motors’ truck assembly plant in Moraine fell short of winning an Oscar at the 82nd Academy Awards Sunday, March 7.
Produced and directed by Yellow Springs filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” was one of five films in its category — best documentary short subject.
Winner was “Music by Prudence,” the story of a disabled African singer.
“It would have been great to bring the statue home to Dayton, but it’s been an experience and honor to be part of this process and this incredibly big show,” Bognar said.
The 42-minute “Last Truck” had its premiere Aug. 19 at the Schuster Performing Arts Center in Dayton. It was broadcast nationally by HBO on Labor Day, Sept. 7.
Four of the workers featured in the film, Kim Clay, Paul “Popeye” Hurst, Kate Geiger and Kathy Day, accompanied the directors from Dayton to the ceremonies at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. They are among more than 2,400 who lost their jobs when the plant closed.
Although members of the Dayton entourage were disappointed, Clay said by phone during the awards ceremony, “We’re great. We didn’t win, but we lost to a lovely film about a marvelous singer. We got to hear her sing Saturday night at the HBO ball.”
Clay said the four workers “have also had the opportunity to tell our story about needing jobs in Dayton, where we have a solid and available work force.”
Besides CNN, TV 1 and others, a Chinese television station interviewed the workers.
“They’ve represented Dayton well. They did an eight-minute interview with CNN on the red carpet today. They talked about jobs, jobs, jobs,” Bognar said.
Bognar and Reichert won an Emmy Award for their previous project, “A Lion in the House,” a 2006 documentary about children fighting cancer.
It was the third Academy Award nomination for Reichert, a member of the motion pictures faculty at Wright State University. Bognar, a WSU graduate, was up for the first time.
“The Last Truck” entourage at the Oscars. L to R: Ben Garchar, Kathe Day, Julia Reichert, Steve Bognar, Kim Clay, Kate Geiger, Paul “Popeye” Hurst, Melissa Godoy. (photo by Sahar Milani)
“Last Truck” was among the frontrunners in its category. “Time” magazine had the ex-GM workers’ story as its top choice. The Los Angeles Times’ pundit doubted its chances because “it’s about trailer trash folks whom snooty Oscar voters usually scorn.”
Those in the Dayton area awaiting results included guests at Oscar parties thrown by FilmDayton, the Neon Movies and the Little Art Theater in Yellow Springs.
Six awards were announced and a posthumous tribute was offered to director John Hughes before Carey Mulligan and Zoe Saldana presented the documentary short prize at 9:33 p.m.
Other nominees in the category were: “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province,” about the 2008 earthquake in central China; “The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner,” about a former Washington governor with Parkinson’s disease who was working to legalize assisted suicide, and “Rabbit a la Berlin.”
Clay said members of the “Last Truck” group watched all of the nominated documentaries at the Writer’s Guild in Los Angeles Saturday, March 7. “I thought we might win, but they are all wonderful films.”
Reached by phone during the awards, Bognar said the Dayton group “is nestled among our fellow documentary short filmmakers. It’s been a tense few days for all of us. I think we’re all feeling some relief from that pressure.”
Permalink | Comments (23) | Post your comment | Categories: Film
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By samantha
March 7, 2010 10:02 PM | Link to this
Guess the world still doesnt “get it”. Sad tonight………..GM Peeps DESERVED that award.
By becca
March 7, 2010 10:47 PM | Link to this
omg…guess they should live in the miami valley. See what I and so many others have seen in the last 30 yrs…Our city is a dying or should i say a dead bred…where do we go from here????
By nesom
March 8, 2010 12:36 AM | Link to this
I really don’t see how “GM Peeps DESERVED” this award. The Oscars are about the film industry - not about laid-off auto workers from Dayton, Ohio… or anywhere else. Bognar and Reichert did a fine job producing this documentary short film. The very few of many workers which were featured in the film are not actors and not unique in their economic struggles, sadly. Dayton is becoming a desert in job opportunities all around. Soon, there will be no “middle class” to spend beyond their means here because of corporate greed that has resulted in many plant closings and businesses leaving town - not just GM.
By Jon E Begoode
March 8, 2010 12:50 AM | Link to this
Does the movie bring up the fact that this is the only N.American assembly plant that was non-UAW. Now GM has one less Union to deal with. Old Frigidaire still stuck with the IUE. I think that was part of the equation. Ditch the IUE. Live and die with your Union.
By Downtown Dayton Sandy Gspot
March 8, 2010 12:55 AM | Link to this
Good, we don’t need out of town folks to see the negative side of Dayton.
By DLH
March 8, 2010 5:48 AM | Link to this
Jon E Begoode said it BEST. If your stuck in the past…meaning belong to a union…those day are over. Who in the heck wants to belong to unions these days? All that does these days is make it harder to progress…its just makes sense these days to go where you do not have to deal with that crap. I mean companys go some where else. Get rid of those old useless unions.
By BKLANG
March 8, 2010 6:14 AM | Link to this
Danny Glover put a boycott on Hugo Boss at the Oscars, because of the closing of a cleveland plant. All actor’s/actress’es, should boycott GM products.Give GM a taste of their own medicine.
By unionmember
March 8, 2010 7:04 AM | Link to this
Calling us trailer trash is plane ugly. Workers are the ones who built America, proudly.
By God helps those...
March 8, 2010 7:11 AM | Link to this
When Iwatched the show as soon as I saw yet ANOTHER documentary about people who are struggling and being mutilated by their brothers and sisters in Africa, I KNEW ‘Last Truck’ would lose. How many of those darn things do we have to see? What are we supposed to do about the carnege over there? Lets help ourselves first, people.
By Dude
March 8, 2010 7:26 AM | Link to this
Don’t believe everything you hear. One of these ex-GM workers quit a fulltime job for 15 minutes of fame.
By Eddy Miller
March 8, 2010 7:34 AM | Link to this
Did anyone ever think that a movie about our plant would go this far? It’s the Oscars! Anyone who complains that it didnt win should be ashamed of themselves. Just the idea that it was one of four films in the country to be nominated is an incredible achievement. I am very proud of the people who made the film and who were in the film. It sounds like the movie isn’t over just yet. With all the publicity it just got it will become even more popular.
By Ex-GM worker
March 8, 2010 8:36 AM | Link to this
It is sad, but true. No one wants to hear about Dayton,OH and the thousands of people who called GM home. It does not matter that we no longer have jobs, “trailer trash” does not count. I was proud to work at Moraine Assembly. I was proud to be part of our Union. I do believe people don’t want to hear anymore about GM and bailouts and tax dollars, there may be the reason “Last Truck” did not win. Look at the whole picture “Hollywood”. What if they closed the doors on YOU?!
By Bang Bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
March 8, 2010 8:41 AM | Link to this
Building trucks is interesting but not closing of a plant and people losing jobs. Depressing subject for an already depressed society.
By enough already
March 8, 2010 8:50 AM | Link to this
I have had the doors closed on me and I did not sit around and whine. like everyone else, except gm workers, I went out found another job. what makes you people feel you are so deserving when you are part of the problem.
By Dead Ohio
March 8, 2010 8:54 AM | Link to this
You have to understand the Hollywood mentality. If the plant workers were LGBT and the plant closed, Hollywood would be all over it. Dayton, be glad Hollywood did not care. We live in the real world.
By ToleratingOthers
March 8, 2010 9:10 AM | Link to this
The Union was soley responsible for their own (GM’s) demise. Hardly award worthy.
By EAB
March 8, 2010 9:31 AM | Link to this
I don’t think the documentary went too far into the reasons why the plant was closing. In fact, the documentary took me back to a day when the US Navy decommissioned the 50 year old ship I was stationed on. The comradery that one gets with people you work with, drink with after work, and cry with when something goes bad; well, it’s a tough deal. Also, when you see something you work all your life on go by the wayside and pretty much have society tell you what you do is of no use anymore, well, that’s hard to deal with. Independent of reasons and such, I felt for those people, and I wish them well.
By Ex-GM worker
March 8, 2010 9:31 AM | Link to this
I don’t agree that the Union was the reason Moraine Assembly closed. Talk to Rick Wagner. Every plant he closed, he was highly rewarded. GM workers are not part of the “problem”. Everyone has lost a job at one time or another but did it include 3000 people out of work? Dayton was a GM town, for many, many years. Now there is no GM, Delphi,Cooper Tire, NCR. The film tried to show the effect on the plant closing to the community as well as the people who worked there.
By B'wana
March 8, 2010 10:31 AM | Link to this
Yawnnnnn…
By drnbry
March 8, 2010 3:37 PM | Link to this
we were the problem? the workers that went to work for the years to feed the greed of the corperate world, then lose our jobs because of the union status?the union was not responsible for for gm’s demise. wagner and company was. we was jost doing our jobs. going to work and filling the orders that came from the corperate office. since some people seem to think that all gm workers are whiners—if you was in our shoes which your aren’t it is very dufficult to tell other possible employers that 3% of the people in the plant effect the other 97% of the workers. it has been hard to find jobs when the general idea is workers from gm are all drunks, drug users, lazy bums, and dont have a work ethic. try to get a job where someone thinks that you are all of the above and can prove that your not even taking several tests and passing them with flying colors and get called a liar for the good results. trailer trash? who do you think you are. i wa proud to work there for the time. there was a lot of good people there and we spent our money in the miami valley buisnesses for the times that we was employed. your probably one of the people who would appreciate it if wpafb would close, then this whole area would have to be plated over just to have another resturant ot shopping mall for your sorry but to go to. unless i miss my guess your also happy that your taxes went down. just wait until the new levies go up and then you have to pay more taxes to get reduced services from the cities. we will be hearing your crying for justice and we the people who lost our jobs at gm and others will turn a deaf ear to you. enjoy the people on the street begging for money. because its only going to get worse. open another resturant or mall so that you can walk in until you realize the fact that there is no large money base to support it. you just might have to order your own foodand then cook it.
By Hurrican24
March 8, 2010 4:46 PM | Link to this
Hey, “you were the problem” What do you mean that DRNBRY is a Typical GM Worker, all workers at GM were a typical GM worker. This message board is the place for a typical GM worker to vent their concerns or frustrations. And all he was saying that the good people that worked at Moraine Assembly lost their jobs because they were not UAW. That is just a fact, the Moraine plant was the most productive on the North America Platform. They broke many records for quality and vehicles per hour. And what do you mean you didnt have Unemployment? Why not? And why didnt you have a pension, whos fault is that? You were doing more whining then DRMBRY. I didnt see DRMBRY whining at all, I just read a lot of factual statements. Sounds like you are in the bunch of jealous workers that just hated to see anyone live a decent life.
By drnbry
March 8, 2010 5:09 PM | Link to this
hurricane24: this individual understood what it took to be a gm worker. long hours loss of sleep and family fights high divarce rates allowed the workers to produce tha numbers that was demanded form the plant. the moraine plant was the only plant in the gm world to made such numbers because of the trade-offs. we broke records in the plant and the world wasnt there to watch the home lifes go to the wayside. the money we was paid to do this didnt go into our pockets but others. moraine went out because we were not uaw. and we went out at the top of our game. not the bottom. 75 trucks an hour was not easy on anybody. the only other plant that could touch us was the mustang plant with 80 plus cars an hour. funny that they are still employed.
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May 2, 2010 12:58 PM | Link to this
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