First responders are on the forefront of many people’s worst days, and the weight of that trauma can be heavy. A new documentary, “The Call,” from director, producer and editor Laura Boyd Owen and executive producer and cinematographer Charles English, explores the mental health struggles firefighters in New Mexico face and the growing push to support those who serve their communities.
The film recently screened in Albuquerque.”We originally were just two people looking to tell a story,” Boyd Owen said of her and English’s collaboration, “and we kind of searched our networks until we found our subjects, and as soon as we met them, we knew this was exactly the kind of story that we wanted to tell. It’s something that is not talked about nearly as much as it should be, so I think that was incredibly important as why or why now. It’s something where we wanted to very much highlight the issue that is happening with very high suicide rate, a mental health crisis among first responders, but most importantly, leave people with hope.
KUNM: You briefly mentioned the high rates of suicide in the first responder community. Why do you think that stigma around staying silent around mental health struggles has persisted in this community for so long?…