Posts Tagged ‘the interrupters’
Ms. Magazine Talks Interrupters With Ameena Matthews
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011DP/30: The Interrupters, director/producer Steve James & producer Alex Kotlowitz
Friday, July 29th, 2011
via Skype
Critics Roundup — July 28
Thursday, July 28th, 2011Cowboys and Aliens |Yellow||Red||Yellow
Crazy Stupid Love |Yellow||Green||Yellow
Life in a Day ||||Yellow|
Attack the Block (limited) |||Green||
The Future (limited) |||Green|Green|
The Interrupters (NY) |||Green|Green|
The Devil’s Double (limited) |||||
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (NY) |||Green||
The Guard (limited) |Yellow||||Yellow
Point Blank (NY, LA) |Green||||Yellow
Trailering THE INTERRUPTERS
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011SIFF 2011: Trailer Park #1
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011Here are trailers for some of the films I featured earlier today in my SIFF 2011 Preview.
Opening Night Film: The First Grader
Submarine
The Interrupters
Terri
Without
WITHOUT from right on red films on Vimeo.
Kartemquin Talks Summer Release The Interrupters With James And Kotlowitz
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011On Predicting Sundance Bests
Friday, January 21st, 2011
Predicting film festival bests isn’t my game. But I am hopeful for surprises like a couple years back when, toward the end of Sundance, Robert Koehler is urgently telling me to run, don’t think, go directly to an end-of-festival presser for Man On Wire. (Thank you, Bob.) I’d gotten the same pleasure from being at the very first press showing of Once and then gabbling to anyone I hoped would listen. Go! Discover! In the week’s run up to Sundance 2011, I’ve liked posts by programmers and reviewers and filmmakers that aren’t about impressing a 140-character opinion in one sharp tweet of the cheeks. For instance, Toronto’s Cameron Bailey (@cameron_tiff) hits the ground happy: “Sunshine, snow, SUVs, excessive cheer. Hello Park City!” A keen reminder to get out of doors and read those tweets while waiting for the shuttle to get to headquarters for that badge…
This afternoon, Movieline solicited from attendees three films they wouldn’t dream of leaving Sundance without seeing, and sleep-deprived that I am already, fished out three sincere replies. Top of mind is the premiere I’m seeing in six hours about three miles out to the far edge of town at the Temple Theater, Steve James and Alex Kotlowitz‘s The Interrupters. James is a consummate observer and collaborator, and his work with nonfiction ace Kotlowitz holds promise. Its 161-minute running time suggests the Kartemquin crew is going for the same kind of observational, longitudinal work looking at superficially troubled communities, such as Hoop Dreams, to name but one fine film James has made. Braden King‘s earlier work, including Dutch Harbor, builds off rhythmic accretion, a sense of the land, a drenching sonic texture. Why not make a movie like HERE, about a geolocator gone astray in Armenia? (Plus, it’s shot by Lol Crawley, whose credits include Ballast.) Two years ago, one of the co-directors of The Redemption Of General Butt Naked [pictured, top] told me the story at a Sundance event in 2008. My reaction was physical: I leapt up and looked around the room for people to introduce her to, someone who might know someone who could get this amazing story brought to completion. The title is provocative, but the tale, well, if it matches what I heard…
Sundance Adds World Preem Of The Interrupters, Steve James-Alex Kotlowitz Doc On Stemming Community Violence
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010CHICAGO FILM THE INTERRUPTERS TO PREMIERE AT SUNDANCE
Kartemquin Documentary Takes an Intimate Look at Urban Violence
Chicago, December 2, 2010—The Kartemquin Films documentary, The Interrupters, will have its world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The film, from acclaimed director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and bestselling author Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here) will be part of the Documentary Premieres category, which Sundance created this year for “master filmmakers debuting their new docs about big subjects.”
The Interrupters is Steve James’ fifth film to screen at Sundance and his sixth documentary to be produced with Kartemquin Films, which will kick off a yearlong celebration of the organization’s forty-fifth anniversary at Sundance.
“We are thrilled that The Interrupters will have its world premiere at Sundance,” said Justine Nagan, Executive Director of Kartemquin. “It’s been eight years since we’ve had a film at the festival, and this is the perfect way to begin our anniversary celebrations.”
The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three “violence interrupters” – two men and a woman – who with bravado, humility and humor try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once employed. Shot over the course of a year, the documentary follows these individuals as they attempt to intervene in disputes before they turn violent: a family where two brothers threaten to shoot each other; an angry teenaged girl just home from prison; a young man on a warpath of a revenge.
The Interrupters is an intimate journey into the stubborn, persistence of violence in American cities, and captures not only each interrupters’ work, but reveals their own inspired journeys from crime to hope and redemption. The Interrupters is presented by Kartemquin Films for WGBH/FRONTLINE and the Independent Television Service (ITVS) in association with RISE Films.
“The violence interrupters will attend the festival with us,” said Steve James. “Having a world premiere at Sundance is important not just in introducing The Interrupters to the film world, but also in helping to raise awareness of the issues at its heart.”
The Interrupters will air on FRONTLINE in late 2011 and screen across the country as part of an extensive civic engagement campaign, designed to ensure that the film inspires a national discussion on violence prevention and is seen by the communities most affected by the issue. On December 7th, Kartemquin and the University of Chicago will host community leaders, academics, and organizations working to stem urban violence at a summit designed to develop this vital outreach program.
The 2011 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 20-30, centered in Park City, Utah. Earlier this year, the Sundance Documentary Film Program selected The Interrupters as one of only 18 recipients out to 750 applicants to receive a grant for production funds. Previously, Steve James and Kartemquin Films showcased Hoop Dreams at the 1994 Festival, where winning the Audience Award helped launch the now classic film. In 2003, James’ Kartemquin film Stevie also won the festival’s Cinematography Award.
Since 1966 Kartemquin Films has produced documentaries that examine and critique society through the stories of real people and critical social issues. This Chicago-based “documentary powerhouse” has won every major critical and journalistic prize and is a 2007 recipient of a Macarthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. In 2010, Kartemquin was honored with the Altgeld Freedom of Speech Award for “unflinchingly holding up a mirror to American society.”
Kartemquin is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. www.kartemquin.com
The Interrupters (Kartemquin Films, 2011)
Directed and Photographed by Steve James; Producer: Alex Kotlowitz and Steve James; Co-Producer: Zak Piper; Executive Producers: Gordon Quinn, Justine Nagan, Teddy Leifer, Paul Taylor, Sally Jo Fifer, David Fanning; Editors: Aaron Wickenden and Steve JamesSound: Zak Pipe
