Synopsis

Steve James has been back to Chicago where his heart and soul belongs to when he first read his friend Alex’s New York Times Magazine cover story on an innovative organization, CeaseFire. The Interrupters gave the multi award winning director a chance to return to some of the same streets and neighborhoods he traversed in Hoop Dreams. While that film followed the fortunes of two families hoping to use basketball as a ticket out of poverty, the harsh realities of urban violence and despair suffused their lives then and now. The Interrupters follows Ameena, Cobe and Eddie - three dedicated ‘violence interrupters’ who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they themselves once employed, as they go about their work, and while doing so reveals their own inspired journeys of hope and redemption. On occasion, they find themselves using the very threat of violence to defuse an altercation. As they venture into their communities, they confront the importance of family, the noxious nature of poverty, and the place of race. During the production over 14 months, Chicago, a national symbol for the violence, was besieged by high-profile incidents. 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.

Director

• 

  Steve JAMES
  

  Steve James is the producer-director of Hoop Dreams and his acclaimed films include Sundance prize winner Stevie, Tribeca Grand Prize winner The War Tapes which James produced and edited, and At the Death House Door, which won numerous festival awards. The Interrupters is his sixth film and won several awards and selected one of the best documentaries of the year.
  
  The Interrupters (2011)
  No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson (2009)
  At the Death House Door (2008)
  The War Tapes (2006)

Credits

• Director  Steve JAMES
• Producer  Alex KOTLOWITZ, Steve JAMES
• Cinematographer  Steve JAMES
• Editor  Steve JAMES, Aaron WICKENDEN
• Sound  Zak PIPER

Production Company

• Production Company  Kartemquin Films

Distributor/Sales

• Distributor/Sales  Kartemquin Films
• Address  1901 W. Wellington Chicago IL 60657 USA
• Tel  Tel 1 773 472 4366
• E-mail  info@kartemquin.com