From the director of the classic Hoop Dreams, the documentary The Interrupters tells the stories of three "Violence Interrupters" who work for CeaseFire, an innovative organization that seeks to protect Chicago communities from violence. Shot over the course of a year, The Interrupters captures a period when Chicago became a national symbol for urban violence. CeaseFire’s strategy starts from the belief that the spread of violence is akin to that of an infectious disease, so the treatment should be similar: go after the most infected and stop it before it spreads.
"Searing in its depiction of at-risk children in poor communities, the film is also the bracing, life-affirming story of residents who are beginning to reclaim their streets, one corner at a time." --Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader (full review)
"The Interrupters reminds us of the powers and pleasures of well-crafted, immersive nonfiction filmmaking--a genre vitiated within the past five years by a glut of cruddy-looking, poorly researched and argued titles." --Melissa Anderson, Village Voice (full review)
"The immediacy and caprice of violence in The Interrupters are just as strong as in nearly every documentary I've seen about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." --Wesley Morris, Boston Globe (full review)
