Eleven years in the making, IN THE RED is a feature documentary about transformation, about growing up poor in one of the wealthiest areas in the United States and getting into trouble early on. Some find their way to a free program in Oakland, California that offers a lifeline – rigorous training to become firefighters and first responders.
But the streets keep calling. What makes one kid heed that call and another ignore it?
IN THE RED – raw, intimate and at times funny – follows the lives of six young people for more than a decade. Not everyone succeeds. But for those who do, their lives are forever changed.
Mimi Chakarova
Emmy-nominated filmmaker Mimi Chakarova covered global issues examining conflict, corruption and the sex trade. Her first film “The Price of Sex,” a feature-length documentary on the trafficking of women, was awarded the Nestor Almendros Award for courage in filmmaking at the Lincoln Center in New York. She was also the winner of the prestigious Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting and a Dart Awards Finalist for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma.
Chakarova went on to direct, shoot and produce five other feature-length documentaries and over 30 award-winning short films, completed by her own production company, A Moment in Time Productions. “Men: A Love Story” premiered at the Telluride Film Festival; “Letters,” a collaboration with Grammy-winning artist Kris Davis, premiered at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. Chakarova is the founder and creative director of “Still I Rise Films,” a documentary series about resilience and rising above the odds. In 2021, she set up a fellowship program for women filmmakers and visual artists in need of support and mentorship.
Mimi Chakarova is the recipient of the Dorothea Lange Fellowship for outstanding work in documentary photography and the Magnum Photos Inge Morath Award for her work on sex trafficking. Other awards include a People’s Voice Webby and a nomination for a News and Documentary Emmy Award.
Chakarova taught visual storytelling at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism for 14 years. She also taught reporting classes at Stanford University’s African and African American Studies and Comparative Studies for Race and Ethnicity and has lectured extensively in universities throughout the world.
Mimi Chakarova received her BFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and her MA in Visual Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
Director:
Mimi Chakarova, (The Price of Sex, MEN: A Love Story, LETTERS, The Apology, We All Break)
Producer:
Aisha Knowles, (The Apology) - Julias Canada, (The Block)
Talent:
Joseph Stubbs,
Dexter Harris,
Justin Mayo,
Samantha Soto,
Julio Leon,
Wellington Jasckson,
Sean Gascié,
Eric Lanier
