Chicago’s CeaseFire organization aims to stop the spread of inner-city violence with a unique, dangerous, and controversial method of insinuating its members personally into the fray. The film, directed and photographed by Hoop Dreams filmmaker Steve James and co-produced by journalist and author Alex Kotlowitz, is the chronicle of a year with CeaseFire and three of its interrupters: Ameena, Eddie and Cobe. Intervening directly into threatening and violent situations, the film’s subjects employ lessons learned from their own complicated and violent pasts to gain access and credibility within Chicago’s gang and drug communities, forming personal bonds and offering alternatives to those who until now have had no hope of either. The  Interrupters is a powerful, thoughtful, and unfiltered look at a domestic war zone and its war heroes. The subjects and the filmmaking are equally inspiring and fearless. TM