Review of The Interrupters (2011) by Daniel P — 06 Feb 2013

The Interrupters bares more than a passing resembles to the HBO TV series The Wire - except it's a documentary and it's all true. At nearly three hours, this searing, immersive documentary looks at a group called CeaseFire, an organization in Chicago set up by a doctor who has theorised that the cycle of violence spreads like a virus, and that preventative measures might be better than, for example, increasing police.

Some areas in Chicago have exceptionally high rates of violent crime and statistically a young person is more likely to die from a shooting or stabbing than from anything else. "The Interrupters" refers to the brave group of people, all of whom who have grown up in Chicago and whom in their past have experienced first hand the drugs, violence, and incarceration that practically seems predetermined in some areas, and who now talk to individuals and groups and act as peacekeepers, or, where necessary, 'interrupters' literally putting themselves in the midst of dangerous scenes to stop violence escalating, and to prevent retaliatory violence and shootings.

The documentary concentrates on three of these interrupters and throughout the film details their pasts and what they now do in CeaseFire. Often times their role might just be to listen to what people are saying, or to calm them down, and sometimes they might have to be much more involved.

We get to follow some of the people they are working with or the groups they are involved with, and they run the gamut from working one-to-one to get estranged brothers talking to themselves and their mother, through to work with classes of schoolchildren on anti-violence projects, through to speaking at funerals to beg for the violence to stop, or to ensure the people they're with make a promise to not retaliate - all of which has varying but absolutely noticeable effect in terms of violence committed.

One especially powerful moment shows one of the interrupters literally breaking up a fight in the moment rocks are thrown - surely preventing murder on the streets in broad daylight. Though clocking in at nearly three hours, there's barely a frame that seems misplaced and if anything the film could have been even more exhaustive (we barely see for example, the involvements of police or government aside from a few news clips and archive footage) though this may have been at the expensive of the personal stories, all of which are touching.

The Interrupters themselves should be seen as nothing less than heroes; their work is valuable and certainly saves lives.