“Changing Lives to Save Lives”
With the beautiful opening shot of Oakland, California, I had a hunch this was going to be a compelling feature-length documentary, and indeed, director, producer, and cinematographer Mimi Chakarova’s In the Red is a fascinating journey into the lives of mostly young African-American men who, but for the grace of the Bay EMT’s special training program for potential first responders and firefighters, would most likely have spent much of their lives behind bars. Some of them had already been in prison and probably would have been on the road to more jail time.
Each of these Oakland trainees has a personal story from their incarceration to one who is humiliated that he’s still living with his mom and sleeping on her couch. On completing this physically arduous program, the starting salary is $100,000 yearly. One of the graduate trainees quipped: “I could have been in prison or working at McDonald’s.” The only female trainee, Samatha Soto, shared her story. She was separated from her family at age four. Mom was doing drugs, and when the police raided her house, she hid underneath her home. The no-nonsense trainers, most of whom are graduates of this program, don’t brook any fools.
One trainee was tossed out of the program for being late to class. As narrator Joseph Stubbs takes us through the story, we see scenes of grueling exercises, from multiple push-ups, sit-ups, and squats to practicing entering burning buildings and learning the importance of tying the correct knot. A major benefit of this program is that for graduates, convictions can be expunged, allowing the new firefighter to begin the job with a clean slate.
Graduation day is a heart-warming moment when family and friends gather to support their loved ones in their moment of glory. By the grace of this program, their lives have been totally transformed, and they stand ready to serve their community. Chakarova’s sharp direction sprinkles in wonderful drawings of the action, illustrating specific moments in the narrative, nicely supported by Raphael Saadiq’s lively soundtrack.
Eleven years in the making, In the Red tells the story of the determination of a group of young African-American men and one woman who decide to turn their lives around to train as first responders and firefighters through this free program. They are offered a lifeline to becoming productive members of society. The film is raw and, at times, funny as it follows the lives of these six young people for more than a decade. Not everyone made the cut, but for those who did, their lives are forever changed.
