""I remember coming out of the theater and feeling upset and needing to decompress and grab a drink," Chakarova said. "That's when Randall West, the same firefighter I met a year before walked into the same place I was. Randall said: 'You want to do a documentary of unrecognized heroes? You've got to talk to Wellington. You've got to do a documentary about the kids who are in his program'.""
""Mimi likes a challenge. That's basically how she did it,""
A documentary titled In The Red: Changing Lives to Save Lives follows six youths of color who completed training at the Bay Area Youth EMT Program. Wellington Jackson co-founded the program in 2002 to provide free training, delivered by Black firefighters, for 18- to 24-year-olds involved in the juvenile justice system to become EMTs or join fire departments as paramedic firefighters. The film follows alumni Joseph Stubbs, Dexter Harris, Justin Mayo, Julio Leon, Samantha Soto and Eric Lanier. The documentary premiered at Grand Lake Theatre on Monday, Sept. 22. Filming required significant convincing of Jackson and participants.
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