Hoop Dreams director Steve James’ documentary about violence prevention in inner-city Chicago, The Interrupters, has received stellar reviews since its Sundance debut, including our own. A few excerpts below get me quite interested and it will finally get a limited release at the end of this month. Check them out, followed by the trailer.
Not unlike the HBO crime saga The Wire, James’ doc starts simply enough, presenting the conflict and jumping into what seems to be the solution. Then everything becomes more and more difficult. Things get entangled, answers aren’t so easy.
This isn’t Hoop Dreams. There’s no clear goal, no clear ending. Watching three hours of maybe is no easy task. There are no flash stat charts, no montages. It’s the camera, the criminals and the ex-criminals. We never see outside of this world. We’re in it, good and bad. James wants us to see the depths of the street game, even if he’s not sure how deep it takes to get to the bottom.
Synopsis:
The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three “violence interrupters” – two men and a woman – who with bravado, humility and even humor 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, The Interrupters follows these individuals as they attempt to intervene in disputes before they turn violent: a family where two brothers threaten to shoot each other; an angry teenage girl just home from prison; a young man on a warpath of a revenge. The film captures not only each interrupters’ work, but reveals their own inspired journeys from crime to hope and redemption.
Kartemquin Films will release The Interrupters in limited theaters on July 29th, 2011.