It terms of acquisitions, this Sundance Film Fest was one of the better ones in terms of volume (number of titles sold, not necessarily dollar amount) actually it was such a great fest that we’ve kind of forgotten that not all titles found a suitor. In the case of Steve James’ The Interrupters, the doc was tied up by PBS for a logical television showing in 2012 (personally I’m hoping for a longer two-parter version of what I saw in Park City) and now, it will benefit from what should be a grassroots theatrical release via The Cinema Guild folks. The doc which most probably receive some sort of edit from its Sundance cut, will be released sometime this summer.
Gist: This tells the moving and surprising stories of three “violence interrupters” – two men and a woman – who with bravado, humility and even humor try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once employed.
Worth Noting: Prior to The Interrupters, James directed a 30 for 30 doc called, No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson.
Do We Care?: We caught this at Temple theatre in Park City and much like Hoop Dreams – this gets patrons emotionally invested in the characters and cheering for underdogs — I suppose what’s noteworthy here (and common in James’ work) is that the underdogs/heroes (the violence interrupters) are also coming from the same fabric as those who’ll have their lives changed for the better.
