The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three Violence Interrupters who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once employed. From acclaimed director Steve James and bestselling author Alex Kotlowitz, this film is an unusually intimate journey into the stubborn, persistence of violence in our cities. Shot over the course of a year out of Kartemquin Films, The Interrupters captures a period in Chicago when it became a national symbol for the violence in our cities. During that period, the city was besieged by high-profile incidents, most notably the brutal beating of Derrion Albert, a Chicago High School student, whose death was caught on videotape. The film's main subjects work for an innovative organization, CeaseFire, which believes that the spread of violence mimics the spread of infectious diseases, and so the treatment should be similar: go after the most infected...
Released on 2011
Directed by: Steve James
At this year's Nashville Film Festival, audiences were floored by The Interrupters, a gripping street-level portrait of the war against gang violence by one of the finest documentary filmmakers working, Hoop Dreams director Steve James, and journalist Alex Kotlowitz. Back in April, Jack Silverman praised "this up-close look at 'violence interrupters' from Chicago violence prevention organization CeaseFire. Accepting that bringing an end to gang activity is an unrealistic goal in the foreseeable future, they have one simple, though exceptionally difficult, goal: to stop people from killing each other."
That's a hazardous task in itself, Silverman writes: "James follows three interrupters, all former gang members and ex-convicts, as they get tips on potential flare-ups and do their best to mediate before the shooting starts, and he also captures devastating scenes of the emotional carnage gang violence leaves in its wake." The Interrupters shows at The Belcourt through Thursday, but of special note is the panel discussion following the 6:45 p.m. show tonight, featuring gang outreach specialist Ron Johnson and filmmaker/activist Molly Secours.
