Features > Movie Reviews > The Interrupters…

Years in the making, it followed two inner-city kids from Chicago, boys who pin their hopes on basketball to get them out of the poverty trap into which they were born.

Hoop Dreams was a film about sports, but more than that it was a film about the economic and racial divide, about parenting, education, and community… about bootstraps and everything it takes to be a “self-made” man.

James revists many of these themes – without the sports component – in The Interrupters, another epic document filmed against the same impoverished, largely African-American neighbourhoods of Chicago.

The film was… I don’t want to say “inspired” by, so let’s try “incurred” by a spate of shootings that infected that city in recent years, especially among the youth. The statistics are horrifying – comparable to life in downtown Kandahar. A generation of kids is growing up with no expectation of living past 30. Not because of drugs, but because of the gangs, guns and violence that accompany them – as well as the underlying social issues of unemployment, poverty, and absentee parents. 

Inspired by a story in the New York Times, James focuses on “the interrupters”. It sounds a bit flip to say so, but after watching the film you will surely agree, these are real-life super-heroes. For the most part they are ex-gang members with the criminal records to prove it, men and women who signed on with the non-profit group CeaseFire to intercede in violent hotspots and defuse potentially lethal situations.

They do this not through fire-power but the power of persuasion. They go in unarmed and step into the hostilities preaching calm, reflection, and common sense. For the most part, because they are from the street and because they have done the time, they are received with more respect than you might anticipate. And their results are impressive: a slide in violent crime between 40 and 70% in CeaseFire zones.

As in Hoop Dreams, James doesn’t overdo the talking heads. His style draws on a mixture of interviews and observation, but at its core is the patience and commitment of fly-on-wall cinema vérité filmmaking. Like the interrupters themselves, he's all about being in the right place, which quite simply means putting in the time to earn trust and win your breaks.

If the key to a good documentary is finding strong personalities, James has come up trumps. Eddie has spent half his life in prison, but now he’s showing his true potential. Cobe is the same, still learning the ropes as an interrupter but smart enough to ask for help when he needs it, and an approachable, amiable guy who knows the importance of getting people talking and being there for them. And then there’s Ameena, an incredible woman, the daughter of one of Chicago’s most notorious gangsters who turned her life around after she was shot. Ameena is a Muslim, and a passionate, compassionate orator, someone who can turn a crowd around by the strength of her sincerity and eloquence.

And then there are the characters they interact with on the streets, the ones who are still sinking under the weight of their issues, and who respond to these inspirational men and women in ways that are often complex, frustrating, sometimes funny, and sometimes deeply moving. This epic documentary repeatedly brought tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat. It’s like a real life episode of The Wire, compelling and authentic, swinging back and forth between hope and despair.