From producer/director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and author-turned-producer Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here) comes an epic documentary work exploring violence in America.
The film tells the moving and surprising story of three "violence interrupters" in Chicago who, with bravado, humility and even humor, try to protect their communities from the violence they once employed. Filmed over the course of a year, The Interrupters captures a period in Chicago when it became a national symbol for the violence in our cities. The film's main subjects work for an innovative organization, CeaseFire, which believes that the spread of violence mimics that of infectious diseases, and so the treatment should be similar: go after the most infected, and stop the infection at its source. These "violence interrupters" (their job title) — who have credibility on the street because of their own personal histories — intervene in conflicts before the incidents explode into violence. Their work and their insights are informed by their own journeys, which, as each of them points out, defy easy characterization.
