The documentary of the closing, and the production company

1997–2000 · A TESTED NEGATIVE · VIRTUAL VOX'S FILM SIDE

The closing, with its date conflict printed whole: the former Ball Band plant ceased operations in 1997. The university archive's telling has the empty buildings demolished in June 2000 and Robert C. Beutter Riverfront Park established on the site in 2005; the Ball-Band Factory historical marker tells it with the city acquiring the property in 1999 through bankruptcy and completing the demolition in 2001. Both tellings stand; the demolition year is 2000 on the archive's record and 2001 on the marker's.

The documentary test — negative: no documentary of the Ball Band closing was found. The searches run in November 2026 — for a WNIT or other local production on the closing, the demolition, or the plant's last years — returned none. The Uniroyal-closing documentaries that do exist are another city's: When Rubber Hit the Road (B. J. Hollars and Steve Dayton, premiered May 3, 2024) and Dennis Miller's What Was Uniroyal? (premiered June 26, 2022) both tell the 1992 closing of Uniroyal's Eau Claire, Wisconsin tire plant and its 1,300 jobs — the same company's grief in a different town, boundary-printed here and not imported. A defining civic event of Mishawaka's century thus has, on the record searched, no film of its own; the settling sources are named: WNIT's program archives and the IUSB archives' audiovisual holdings, read whole.

The production company — Virtual Vox Studio: Virtual Vox Studio stands in the founding fragment as a Mishawaka recording business, at 1017 E. Jefferson Blvd., Ste. A in current listings, classed as a music production studio. Its film side was tested here: the searches run in November 2026 for a Virtual Vox film or video production record returned none — the studio's public footprint is audio. Verdict: entered whole at the size the record gives it — a Mishawaka audio production company whose film side tests negative — and no Mishawaka production company of the film kind was found in its place.

Sources:

1. Indiana University South Bend Archives, Guide to the Mishawaka Woolen and Rubber Company Film Collection (operations ceased 1997; demolition June 2000; Beutter Riverfront Park 2005); Ball-Band Factory historical marker, hmdb.org (acquired 1999; demolition completed 2001). Conflict printed whole.
2. Searches run, November 2026: "Ball Band closing documentary WNIT," "Uniroyal Mishawaka documentary film" — no Mishawaka production returned; Eau Claire documentaries as cited in text (Pablo Center premiere records; Eau Claire press).
3. Film & TV Producers, founding fragment (Virtual Vox Studio, audio) — pointer; current business listings (Virtual Vox Studio, 1017 E. Jefferson Blvd., Ste. A, Mishawaka, music production studio), verified November 2026.