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 death of Derrion Albert, a Chicago High School student whose death was caught on videotape.
The “violence interrupters” work for an innovative organization, CeaseFire, which is the
brainchild of epidemiologist Gary Slutkin who for ten years battled the spread of cholera
and AIDS in Africa. Slutkin 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.
Their work is fraught with moral quandaries. They have to step between adversaries, often
people they know. They need to acknowledge people’s grievances while simultaneously
pulling them back from acting on them. And on occasion, they find themselves using the
very threat of violence to defuse an altercation. As they venture into their communities,
they confront the importance of family, the noxious nature of poverty, and the place of
race. And they do it with incredible candor and directness.
Ameena Matthews, whose father is Jeff Fort, one of the city’s most notorious gang leaders,
was herself once a drug ring enforcer. But having children and finding solace in her Muslim
faith pulled her off the streets and grounded her. In the wake of Derrion Albert’s death,
Ameena becomes a close confidante to his mother, and helps her through her grieving.
Ameena, who is known among her colleagues for her fearlessness, intervenes in an
argument over $5, a gang altercation and a group of young men thinking of retaliating for a
friend’s murder. During one interruption, Ameena befriends a feisty, troubled teenaged girl
who reminds her of her own self at that age. The film follows that friendship over the
course of many months, as Ameena tries to nudge the troubled girl in the right direction.
Cobe Williams, scarred by his father’s murder when he was 12-years-old, was in and out
of prison, until he had had enough. Like Ameena, his family – particularly a young son –
helped him find his footing. Cobe disarms others with his humor and his general good
nature. His most challenging moment comes when he has to confront a man so bent on
revenge that Cobe has to pat him down to make sure he’s put away his gun. Like Ameena,
he gets deeply involved in the lives of those he encounters, including a teenaged boy just
out of prison and a young man from his old neighborhood who’s squatting in a foreclosed
home.
Eddie Bocanegra is haunted by a murder he committed when he was seventeen. It’s
become the centripetal force in his life. His CeaseFire work is a part of his repentance for 3
what he did. Eddie is most deeply disturbed by the aftereffects of the violence on children,
and so he spends much of his time working with younger kids in an effort to both keep
them off the streets and to get support to those who need it – including a 16-year-old girl
whose brother died in her arms. Soulful and empathic, Eddie, who learned to paint in
prison, teaches art to children, trying warn them of the debilitating trauma experienced by
those touched by the violence.
THE INTERRUPTERS follows Ameena, Cobe and Eddie as they go about their work, and
while doing so reveals their own inspired journeys of hope and redemption. 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. The film
attempts to make sense of what CeaseFire’s Tio Hardiman calls, simply, “the madness".
