The Interrupters
DIRECTED BY STEVE JAMES
Strictly as a source of subject matter, Chicago’s mean streets have been kind to filmmaker and Illinois native Steve James. In 1994, James won richly deserved plaudits for Hoop Dreams, which chronicled the aspirations of two teen NBA hopefuls from low-income Chicago neighbourhoods and has since become one of cinema’s most acclaimed documentaries. With the similarly exalted The Interrupters, James teams with author Alex Kotlowitz to revisit those same neighbourhoods 15 years on—but this time he captures the stuff of nightmares.
Shot between the summers of 2009 and 2010, The Interrupters reveals a city shattered by random, unrelenting violence, typified by the senseless, virally publicized murder of 16-year-old Derrion Albert. In 2000, as a response to endemic and often indiscriminate bloodshed, epidemiologist Gary Slutkin founded the CeaseFire program, a grassroots initiative employing concerned residents as “violence interrupters.” Often former gang members, the interrupters patrol Chicago’s highest-risk blocks, staging interventions when altercations threaten to escalate.
James follows three of CeaseFire’s most active members, as well as program director Tio Hardiman, documenting their daily endeavours to heal a devastated community. His principal subjects are fearless ex-enforcer and Islamic convert Ameena Matthews; the affable Cobe Williams, a reformed attempted murderer; and soft-spoken Eddie Bocanegra, who spent 14 years in prison for taking a life as a teen. While The Interrupters does briefly delve into the histories of its heroes, it’s James’ portrait of the community that is most powerful. Premature death or a prison sentence are seen as near inevitabilities in a setting that scarcely resembles a functioning society, let alone a nation eager to label itself exceptional. Yet it’s also clear that such attitudes are born of despair rather than defiance, as demonstrated by the remarkable general receptiveness to the interrupters’ efforts.
That Williams, a slight woman in a headscarf, so readily commands the undivided attention and total respect of a posse of young males in caps and colors speaks to an evident eagerness for guidance. It also speaks to her remarkable poise and strength of character, and the degree to which she and her CeaseFire colleagues offer hope of a viable alternative to violence. The trouble, of course, is that there aren’t nearly enough such individuals at hand, and in the time spent diffusing one confrontation, several more are often developing elsewhere. That’s the reality of The Interrupters’ heroism. James’ film is a tough sell next to the raft of recent popcorn flicks from DC and Marvel, but it’s immeasurably more urgent.