Fifteen Ball State students working through the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry have documented the lives of a few Indiana residents who have struggled to recover from cancer and the loss of homes due to fire.
The "Making Your Way Back" documentaries will premiere at 8 p.m. Wednesday and Friday at the Muncie Center for the Arts, 520 E. Main St. The premiere is free and open to the public.
These documentaries will be distributed in the next few months to the American Cancer Society, Ball Memorial Hospital, The Little Red Door Cancer Services of Delaware County and the Hoosier Heartland Chapter of the American Red Cross, said Laura O'Hara, associate professor of communication studies and facilitator of the projects.
These agencies will use the documentaries to help personal tragedy victims, O'Hara said.
"Each tells the story of these individuals' outlook and how they 'kept hope' through their trials," she said.
In the first documentary, titled "One Day At a Time," a group of five students who volunteer for the Red Cross toured the homes of the Campbell family from Muncie and the Cullen family from Portland, who both lost their homes to fire. They also followed the Holts family from Selma, who lost their home to a flood.
"Before I started, I had no idea what happened to people who lost their homes," senior Brian Paul said. "We were out there around the rubble of what used to be these people's lives."
While the Holts family's home was destroyed in December, the Cullens are still living in their damaged house, rebuilding it one board at a time, Paul said. He said the Campbells, however, have a new home and are using the documentary to reflect on their past experiences.
"There were three unique perspectives," Paul said. "The last one gives closure and shows how you can really come back."
In the second documentary, titled "Designing Hope," another group of five students filmed the lives of Muncie residents Mary Rigel and Eldon Naylor and Fort Wayne resident Nathan Moore, who have all been through radiation and chemotherapy for cancer.
Senior Kenneth Loechner said this documentary also presented unique perspectives, with Moore now in remission after having leukemia twice and Rigle now in remission after being diagnosed with cancer in 1999. Naylor, who was told he has a 5 percent chance of survival, "is recovering as we speak," Loechner said.
"I think (students) have learned to see life in an entirely different, far less self-centered way," O'Hara said.
During the filming, a group of five students called the Meta Team also created a documentary titled "Shooting for Hope," which showed how the Red Cross group dealt with conflict, joy and achievement, Loechner said.
"The students have learned far more about working together as a group than anything from any textbook," O'Hara said. "Because this project has very real stakes, these students have no choice but to get the job done. That means dealing effectively with conflict, learning how to lead by example and learning how to cooperate."
Loechner, who was diagnosed with an irreparable brain tumor his freshman year, said he wanted to do the documentary so he could use his own experiences to help others.
"I knew I would be able to present a tape of patients who went through or will go through what I did," Loechner said.
Sophomore Molly Barrett said she hopes all of the documentaries will show students the importance of appreciating the simple things in life.
"We make big deals out of having tests and out of our grades, and there's a lot more things that are more important," Barrett said. "People, relationships and giving are more important."
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