A documentary about General Motors Corp.’s decision to close its final Dayton-area plant continues to garner recognition.

A critic for the Baltimore Sun named the HBO documentary “The Last Truck: The Closing of a GM Plant” one of 2009’s top 10 television programs.

“Nobody does documentaries like HBO, and none captured the landmark change and pain in America’s heartland these days like this one,” wrote critic David Zurawik.

Zurawik ranked “The Last Truck” at No. 9 for the year.

Local filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar, with their crew, made the film last year in the months leading up to the Dec. 23, 2008, closing of GM’s SUV assembly plant off Ohio 741 in Moraine, interviewing workers and others affected by the closing.

The plant’s end put about 1,000 people out of work, although the plant had employed thousands more in recent years. Workers there assembled mid-size SUVs, like the Chevrolet TrailBlazer.

The Last Truck debuted locally last summer before airing on HBO on Labor Day. In October, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named the work one of eight contenders for the “documentary short subject” Oscar at the 82nd Academy Awards.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.