NRSynopsis
The Interrupters (2011) is a documentary by Steve James — watch online on iFILM. James, known for Hoop Dreams, spent the better part of a year in Chicago communities where gang violence has become self-perpetuating, and where no one seems able to break the cycle.
His three subjects — Ameena Matthews, Cobe Williams, and Tio Hardiman — all came out of that world themselves. They work for CeaseFire, built around epidemiologist Gary Slutkin's idea that street shootings spread like an infectious disease: interrupt the contagion at the source and the outbreak may not happen. The job means arriving at flash points before guns come out and talking down men who would rather not be talked down.
Premiered at Sundance 2011, the film is equal parts social-policy argument and intimate portrait of people trying to outrun their own pasts. Stream The Interrupters online on iFILM.
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