The efforts of a year and a half of work, countless student research hours, hours of interview footage and months of editing combined Tuesday night in the release of "Changing Gears: End of an Era," a documentary on Muncie and the impact of the closing of one factory.
Ball State's Center for Middletown Studies and the Institute for Digital Entertainment and Education released the film in collaboration with Minnestrista Cultural Center, the Muncie Star Press and members of Muncie Local UAW 287.
Centered on the closing of the Muncie BorgWarner Automotive Transmission Plant, the documentary follows a number of BorgWarner employees on their final days while telling some of the history of BorgWarner in Muncie and of Muncie itself.
James Connolly, director of the Center for Middletown Studies, oversaw the program.
"There isn't really any way to tell the story that is happy," Connolly said.
David Buckler was a senior history major when he started working on the project. Under the direction of the Center for Middletown Studies, Buckler spent eight hours a week for a semester looking through microfiche and old newspapers.
The audience was filled with Muncie residents, many of whom were former BorgWarner employees.
Mike Copeland is a former employee who was interviewed for the documentary. Copeland said he thought it was a fair treatment of the event and the surroundings.
Telecommunications and Spanish double major Andrea Perry, who works with IDEE, was a production assistant on "Changing Gears." Perry praised the production crew.
"They put so much effort in," she said. "Keith Jackson, the editor, really worked his tail off. I'm really pleased."
Justin Jones directed the documentary and was pleased with the opening night reception.
"I felt really good about it. This is an important story that needed to be told," Jones said. "I think there has been a big misunderstanding with unions that this movie helped."
Jones thanked the students who worked on the film, noting their hours of logging interviews and searching records.
He said the only thing he might change if he did it again would be to start earlier. The project was initiated three months before the factory closed, leaving the crew scrambling to make contacts and get preparations.
Erika Nielsen, director of marketing and public relations for BorgWarner, traveled from Auburn Hills, Mich., for the opening.
"I think it was a fair representation," she said. "It was about who it should have been about: the people and the community here and the workers."
Around the same time as the company in Muncie closing, BorgWarner closed factories in England and Canada, Nielsen said.
Sophomore telecommunications major Alex McIntire said she enjoyed the film and learned more about Muncie. She looked at the film in a personal light.
"I have family that works for factories," McIntire said. "I fear for my own family, that one day they will not have jobs and that they may see themselves in the same place as these workers."
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