Just Yell Fire

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Just Yell Fire

Directed by	Takafumi Uehara
Produced by	Maggie Jessup Aulani Wehage
Written by	Dallas Jessup Catherine Wehage Maggie Jessup Jay Jessup
Starring	Josh Holloway Dallas Jessup Catherine Wehage Chief Brian Martinek Evangeline Lilly Chad Von Dette Park Maguire Matthew Wadzita Anthony Neal
Running time	Approximately 45 minutes
IMDb profile

Just Yell Fire is a freely distributed film aimed at teaching young girls to defend themselves against attackers. Started as a school project by Dallas Jessup and Catherine Wehage, freshmen at St. Mary's Academy in Portland, Oregon, the project grew to include the celebrity endorsement of Josh Holloway and Evangeline Lilly of the television show Lost.^[1]^[2]

The video teaches viewers weak points on an attacker's body and how to effectively cause enough pain to those points to escape. It also tells viewers how to avoid becoming a target for rape and kidnapping to begin with.

The film's title references a point made in the video: that yelling "help" or "rape" may frighten potential witnesses or rescuers away, while yelling "fire" tends to draw a crowd.

Principal shooting was done over a span of five days in June of 2006, primarily on the campus of Clackamas Community College in Oregon City, Oregon. Holloway's segment in the video was shot separately from the rest of the film, in Hawaii, while Lost was on hiatus.^[2]

The film was completed by the end of the summer. After showings in late September and early October, Just Yell Fire was released for free online download. As of December, the website has exceeded 850,000 hits and 45,000 individual downloads of the movie itself. Additionally, over 5,500 DVDs have been given to interested parties.^[3]