THE INTERRUPTERS
Inner-city violence has been a problem since the development of cities, but the new searing documentary THE INTERRUPTERS aims to explore possible solutions. THE INTERRUPTERS captures a particular period in Chicago history in which the city became the national symbol of urban violence. Following a series highly publicized incidents, most notably the brutal beating of a high school student caught on tape, the landscape of Chicago became one for danger, fear, and rage.
“The stories in THE INTERRUPTERS, a hard wallop of a documentary, may weigh heavily on your heart and head, but they will also probably infuriate you.”
-Manohla Dargis, NEW YORK TIMES
“THE INTERRUPTERS reminds us of the powers and pleasures of well-crafted, immersive non-fiction filmmaking – a genre vitiated within the past five years by a glut of cruddy-looking, poorly researched and argued titles.”
-Melissa Anderson, VILLAGE VOICE
“Begins with sobering facts about Chicago’s epidemic of gangs and youth violence before embedding us with people hoping to change them.”
-Joe Neumaler, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
THE INTERRUPTERS focuses on a group of citizen activist who aim to interrupt Chicago’s cycle of violence, a vortex that threatened to swallow the city. Revolving around CeaseFire, an innovative anti-violence organization, Steve James documentary provides a heartbreaking and intimate look at those who committee violence and those who try to prevent violence. THE INTERRUPTERS is a powerful piece of non-fiction filmmaking that heralds back to the renaissance of American documentaries and the political activism of the 1960s and 70s.
Directed by Steve James. Unrated.
USA, 2011, Digital Projection, 125 minutes, Color, English.
