Two Ball State University students are putting a new twist on a summer Spanish study program to Mexico.
Although senior Jeff Dillow earned credits for taking Spanish 201 and 202 during a previous trip to Mexico, he found a way to return to the country and earn further Spanish and telecommunications credits without taking a single class.
In the place of classes, Dillow and fellow TCOM major Matt Riegsecker filmed a documentary about Mexican marketplaces.
"It's so incredible how we can go to Wal-Mart, but they have to go to these gigantic marketplaces," Dillow said.
"We don't have anything like this in America," he said. "The farmer's markets here don't even come close."
Dillow and Riegsecker spent six weeks in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, and shot about seven hours of film.
The film will be shortened into a 30-minute documentary, which should be completed by the end of Fall Semester, Dillow said.
The film's main purpose is to see how the markets function in the Mexican society, he said.
"The markets are so important to these people. If they cease to exist, their society would crumble," he said. "It provides a way of life."
The film-making duo walked the same path of the three-football-field length market everyday and conversed with retailers as if they were good friends, he said.
Although Dillow traveled to Mexico both as a child and previously to complete Spanish 201 and 202, he was still surprised to learn the extent of poverty in the country.
"This is a life or death situation for them," he said, adding that a day without sales for these retailers is a day without food to eat for themselves.
Despite hardships, Dillow said the locals were incredibly welcoming to him, saying they greeted him warmly everyday and often referred to the pair as "National Geographic."
"When you go down there they don't care about time; it's so socially driven," he said.
Despite Dillow's six years of Spanish classes, he said the main difficulty Dillow and Riegsecker came across was interpreting and understanding the responses of interviewees fast enough to think of follow-up questions, he said.
He will receive a total of nine credits - three each for Spanish, TCOM and history - for researching and writing about his experience.
The Mexican marketplace experience isn't the first time Dillow has used film to document life.
"Ever since I was a kid, I've had a camera in my hand," he said.
He is working an internship for Channel 13 WTHR in Indianapolis until September and will not take classes at Ball State until Spring Semester in order to complete work on the documentary.
Dillow served as producer for the documentary but hopes to be a television producer in the sports field after he graduates.
"I like being able to tell a story without saying a word ... it's what your eye recognizes rather than your ear," he said.
While Riegsecker was unavailable for comment, Dillow said Riegsecker will work on the special effects and touch-up work of the film.
Jim Culbertson, TCOM instructor and advisor for the summer Spanish program, will help during the editing process of the film if Dillow and Riegsecker ask him to, he said.
The Spanish program is an "excuse for immersion into another culture." Culbertson said. "I'm not concerned how much Spanish they learned," he said. "To me it's about looking into another culture."
He also said he hopes the documentary will start a new partnership between Ball State and Tec de Monterrey University, which provides Spanish classes for students in the summer program.
Three other students have filmed their experiences during the summer Spanish program, but Dillow and Riegsecker are the first to film a complete documentary and not take classes.
"Jeff and Matt are breaking new ground," he said. "It would be fun to think that we could do that on a regular basis."
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