The Interrupters

Many thanks and a garland of Martian fire flowers to the folks behind the Spotlight Cinemas series at MMoCA for bringing The Interrupters here to Madison last week.

The movie follows a trio of "Violence Interrupters" who are individuals that go out into their communities and attempt to defuse volatile situations before they escalate into violence. They are part of an organization called CeaseFire which was founded by an epidemiologist named Gary Slutkin who thinks that violence spreads in a way similar to diseases. A mobile camera crew follows Cobe Williams, Ameena Matthews, and Eddie Bocanegra as they attempt to mediate conflicts in their neighborhoods and go out in the communities to help however they can, whether it be buying someone a meal or lending an ear.

Early in the movie as a group of Interrupters are having a meeting, a fight breaks out right outside their offices and everyone rushes out to help. Not only do we get to see these people step right into the middle of conflicts and put themselves in harm's way, but we also learn that they're not just working against gang violence. A lot of the fights that plague the neighborhoods of Chicago's south and west sides don't involve gangs and are over menial disputes such as a $5 debt or some disrespectful comments.

While I'm sure each of the Interrupters deals with many people in a single day, here we see them attempt to help out a handful of people over the course of many months. Williams is a pretty big guy but he comes across in an avuncular way as opposed to threatening. One person he attempts to help out is a guy named "Flamo". Someone ratted out his brother and he was arrested on weapons charges and now Flamo is ready to shoot someone. Williams works to calm Flamo down as he stands on his porch venting his frustration. An appeal to Flamo to think of his children fails and what him ending up in jail would do to them fails as he protests that he's been in jail for almost half his life so who cares? However, over subsequent visits, Williams helps Flamo change his attitude, and he eventually gets a job.

Bocanegra is clean cut and seems very humble, very gentle. He doesn't raise his voice or impose. He regularly talks with young children at a school or day care center about the violence in their neighborhoods. I almost started balling when one of the girls, who was about four years old, started crying as she described the gun violence around her house. Bocanegra also spends time consoling a Hispanic family who lost a son to violence and make doleful treks to the cemetery every day.

Matthews is short but spunky. She's not afraid to get in the middle of a group of young men much larger than her if she thinks it will help. But she also has a big heart. She gets a lot of screen time where she mentors a teenage girl whose journey out of life on the street goes in fits and starts. Matthews alternately offers hugs and the cold, hard truth which the girl is not always inclined to hear. She also helps the family of Derrion Albert, a high school student who was killed in an after school riot and whose death was infamously captured on cell phone video and posted on the Internet.

As we watch the Interrupters do their job, we also get to learn about their pasts and about their lives now. All three of them were gangbangers in their former lives. Matthews is the daughter of Chicago gang leader Jeff Fort and she got into that life as well. But becoming a mother and a Muslim set her on a new path in life. Williams' father was murdered and he too fell into gangs. He spent many stints in jail but finally tired of it and devoted himself to his family and his community. Bocanegra still deals with the fact that he murdered a man several years ago. For these people, being an Interrupter is perhaps one part good deed and one part dealing with personal demons.

While the movie is littered with plenty of heart-wrenching scenes, there are also some signs of hope. Flamo gets a job and thanks Williams for all he's done. In another scene, a young man is released from jail and Williams takes him to the barber shop that he held up with a friend when he was just a teenager to apologize. This latter example is particularly important. Most of The Interrupters takes place on an interpersonal level whether it be one of the Interrupters tackling personal demons or counseling an individual. But the barber shop scene provides one of the rare instances in the movie when violence moves out to a larger context and away from an individual one.

The Interrupters doesn't try to address the problems plaguing the neighborhoods portrayed in the movie from a wider angle. Explaining the violence is a massive undertaking and I think the movie wisely narrows its focus to the personal stories in the streets instead of trying to draw in larger, society-wide issues like segregation, poverty, &c. This approach personalizes the issue of violence by showing us individuals who have engaged in it and those who have suffered because of it. It also reminds viewers that each individual has a story and his/her own problems and strengths. A look at the larger view would certainly be instructive and is necessary but can only do so much. The Interrupters hints at this braoder view, however, when we hear of broken homes, poverty, and the like. Viewers know that there's more to the story than the movie tells us, but it is beyond its ken.

Regardless of the movie's scope, The Interrupters is a great slice of human drama and it's all true.