Laborfest: Oakland labor film: Test of Courage

Test of Courage: The Making of A Firefighter (56.40 ) (2000)
By Kyung Sun Yu & Gary Mercer. Free showing.
This is a behind-the-scenes look at the trials and triumphs of a group of young men and women competing to become firefighters. Filmed over the course of three years in Oakland, California, one of the most culturally diverse cities in America, the program follows a cast of aspiring firefighters, men and women from different ethnic backgrounds, who are competing against 5000 applicants for only 50 jobs. The program gets inside the lives and hearts of these applicants and shows the grueling training and preparation they go through as the applicant pool gets continually narrowed down.
See also:
http://www.pbs.org/itvs/testofcourage/
http://www.laborfest.net/2010/Films.htm
http://www.laborfest.net/2010/2010schedule.htm