I knew this was not going to be a normal filmviewing
experience.
It’s difficult when
you watch a film that relates to your own expertise or your own
occupation. At best, this leads to
discomfort. Movies are made by
moviemakers, so the only details they get precisely right is when the subject
is movies. Any other occupation or
subject, they can do the research and get it partly right, but not
exactly. Soldiers generally are
uncomfortable with the most accurate war movies, movies about airline disasters
get many details wrong and films about a historic period will often cause
historians to cringe. That’s all well
and good, we know that movies can’t be perfect, unless it’s YOUR area of
expertise. Then the film is someone on
the range from okay to horrible. 
The Interrupters is a documentary about a bold group of lay
people, called Ceasefire, stepping in to
stop the huge number of deaths among young people in Chicago. It is a difficult task, and they get paid
very little, if anything for their important, dangerous work. They
intervene in violent situations, connect with families of victims, assist the
violent to be in more stable situations, and create forums to discuss issues of
violence and peace. It was directed by
Steve James, who also directed the acclaimed documentary, Hoop Dreams.
You may ask how the subject of this film relates to any
expertise on my part. For the last 17 years I have been involved in learning an
outcast, often violent group (the homeless in Portland), being a changing
presence with them and creating community.
Some call it missionary work, some call it
peacemaking, some call it community work, some call it mission work. While I am working on a religious basis, and
working amidst a group that isn’t as deadly as the one Ceasefire works
with, the work is fundamentally the
same. Creating peace in the midst of
violence. Working toward changed hearts,
because that is the basis of changed action.
Intervening in crisis situations.
I have called the emergency line a number of times because of bodies I
have discovered. I have stood in the
middle of knife fights. I have had the
police scream at my face because I was on “the wrong” side. I have built a network of community centers
for those who have no where to go.
Enough about me. That’s
enough to give you my sense of surprise when I watched this film: It was perfect, absolutely, spot on, perfect.
Creating peace is a different animal than keeping the
peace. It is the police’s job to keep
the peace, to catch criminals and take them out of the peaceful situation. But what if the entire community is
broken? What if there is a violent,
chaotic foundation at the heart of a community? Then peace keeping isn’t enough. As many “bad guys” as you haul away, there
will be many more to replace them. What
the Interrupters show is how a community can re-create their space into a
community of peace.
The basic principles are right there in the film:
-Find those who are committed to peace in the community, for
whatever reasons
-Train them in non-violent intervention and in the reasoning
of peace, focusing only on violence, not other criminal activitiy
-Have them make relationships within the community,
especially those at high risk of violence (youth, families of victims)
-Speak words of reason to people when they are likely to be
violent, and before then
-Discuss peacemaking principles with those who are young
enough to instill them in their lives
But the movie is not about the philosophy of
peacemaking. It is about the people who
are involved in the everyday reality of doing it. It is about their pasts, which caused them to
see what violence can do to themselves and their community. It is about their work on the street, both in
the excitement and in the necessary hum-drum of “babysitting” a potential
violent person. It is about the
successes and the failures. It is about the varied personalities that make up a
successful team combating violence.
All combined with a single purpose: to stop kids getting
killed.
I was at various stages of weeping throughout the film. Sometimes I wept for joy, sometimes for
sorrow, sometimes just because I agreed so much with what they were doing. This is the true work of God—the work of
conversion, the work of creating a community of peace from a community of
violence. If you want to see some of
the most important work being done in the world, I cannot more highly recommend
this film.
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