‘The Interrupters’ Seek Peace One Soul at a Time

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Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Chicago is a divided city. On one end is prosperity, modernity and all the trappings therein. On the other, abject poverty, anger and killing. One dedicated group is trying to diminish the killing end, and is documented by director Steve James (”Hoop Dreams”) in “The Interrupters.”

The basis for The Interrupters is academic. If violence is viewed as a disease, what kind of “vaccination” can be introduced to heal it? This was a theory of a local professor named Gary Slutkin, who began the group CeaseFire. Director Steve James follows the members of CeaseFire, ex-convicts and gang members who are back on the streets, trying to negotiate peace in volatile urban conflict, whether it be domestic, gang related or simply anger that cannot be satisfied until someone lies dead.

The Interrupters focuses on both the facilitators of CeaseFire and the people who benefit from their work. Gary Slutkin is an epidemiologist who worked in Africa for ten years fighting infectious diseases. He then viewed violence in the same way, as a disease that can be arrested if the most infected can be isolated and healed. He founded CeaseFire on that principle, and brought counselors in who know the susceptible street environments, and can negotiate using the language and intuition that can make the difference. It was Tio Hardiman, a director of CeaseFire, who came up with the concept of the Interrupters. The idea is to individually inject some trust, love and compassion into lives that are starving for those ideals.

Flamo and Cobe Williams Counsel Each Other in ‘The Interrupters’ Photo credit: Kartemquin Films

The documentary follows three of Hardiman’s street therapists – Ameena Matthews, Cobe Williams and Eddie Bocanegra. Matthews is a daughter of a notorious Chicago gang leader, and she followed the same path in her younger life, until finding solace in her Muslim faith and family. Williams adjusted in a similar fashion, after his father was killed on the streets when he was 12 years old. Bocanegra actually was involved in a killing at 17 years of age. He uses his work in CeaseFire as part of his penance for the incident.

What is most fascinating about the film is the plausibility of Slutkin’s theory. What starves a violent nature most is the introduction of purpose and self-worth. The lashing out towards others is rooted in a hopelessness that can fester every single day among the urban poor. Create a connection, create a hope or even create a laugh in the face of an unstable conflict, and perhaps a life can be saved. The counselors who put themselves on the line applying this proposition have a one-at-a-time philosophy, but if the “cure” can spread, the disease of violence has a chance to be defeated.

All three counselors have fascinating stories, and are motivated in different ways, but it is Ameena Matthews and Eddie Bocanegra who are most compelling. Matthews is dogged in her pursuit of saving lives and negotiating rough situations. She is driven by an inner inertia that is lit from within. Her past and her gratitude to the present all contribute to her courage. Eddie Bocanegra is haunted by his role in a killing, forging a path based on that burden. His work on the streets is motivated by his sin, but in a truly positive and forgiving manner.

The personal results of The Interrupters is an up and down circumstance. It is Cobe Williams who steps into some of the most difficult personalities, including a lost soul named Flamo who keeps coming back to his counselor, even though by all indications his indifference is impenetrable. Flamo just got sick of it all, and Williams had the good timing to get him to the next step. There is also a teenager in William’s counsel that must face the victims of his crime, and the moment is as healing as a come-to-Jesus moment.

Ameena Matthews, Director Steve James and Producer Alex Kotlowitz in ‘The Interrupters’ Photo credit: Kartemquin Films

Director Steve James deftly handles the complexity and multiple stories, just as he did in his famous Hoop Dreams documentary. He distilled miles of footage into the resulting stories, and despite a bit of redundancy that asks for one more trip to the editing bay, the subject matter is gripping enough to hold its two hour run time. The dedication of Steve James and his production team is part of the vital purpose in this film, for they chose to go to the front lines of violence in urban America, and find the right story to inspire some hope on that battlefield.

How is it possible for anyone to make a difference to a abandoned soul? So much of violence is a lashing out against poverty, apathy and a simple lack of being appreciated or loved in a short life. Is the best solution in the urban war an army of psychologists, rather than an arsenal of threats? Can this type of cure spread faster than the disease of violence? The Interrupters don’t waste time asking questions, they roll up their sleeves and get the answers one abandoned soul at a time.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com