The Interrupters

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded the Kartemquin documentary The Interrupters a production grant of $200,000. The grant will allow director/producer Steve James and write/producer Alex Kotlowitz to finish production on the film, which will be broadcast on PBS’ Frontline in 2011.
 
“The MacArthur Foundation has long been a supporter of my work with Kartemquin,” said Steve James. “The first grant we ever received from them was for Hoop Dreams in 1990. That grant saved the film, allowing us to not just finish the film, but also do so in the way we wanted.  We view this current grant to The Interrupters in the same light.  It is extremely timely and essential and will allow us to make the film in a way we hope does justice to the important issues the film addresses.”

Kartemquin director Steve James took his upcoming film The Interrupters to the 2010 Silverdocs International Documentary Conference last week to participate in the prestigious Good Pitch event.

Steve James, The Interrupters co-writer/producer Alex Kotlowitz, and violence interrupter Ameena Matthews together presented a short demo of the film and spoke to the crowd of philanthropists and media funders about their plans for community engagements initiatives around the film's 2011 release. They were well received by the group and a number of potential funders verbally expressed interest in assisting their efforts with the project.

The next day, Steve participated in a conversation with Silverdocs head programmer Sky Sitney about his career. This report from the Center for Social Media about the event contains more information, including this quote about Steve's filmmaking style and the his relationship with Kartemquin:

"[Steve] James noted that while his films always have a point of view, they avoid polemics. Rather, he said, he wants to take the viewer on a voyage of discovery. “The trick of making a good doc,” he said, “is to take the viewer through the revelatory process that the filmmaker went through—but in less time.” He noted that work like his—often exploring hard-to-fund characters and situations, conducted over long periods of times, tackling the complexity of experience—has benefited from his relationship with Kartemquin Films. The production house provides a structure within which talent can be nurtured and good projects can be sustained."

Steve James' in-progress Kartemquin documentary The Interrupters is one of 8 social issue documentaries selected for the prestigious Good Pitch @Silverdocs showcase. The June 23rd, Washington D.C. event "brings together inspiring social-purpose film projects and a group of expert participants from charities, foundations, brands and media to form powerful alliances around groundbreaking films."

Get more information.

Director/producer Steve James and writer/producer Alex Kotlowitz, currently in production on the forthcoming Kartemquin documentary The Interrupters, will discuss the intersections of film and nonfiction in a free talk at Northwestern University next week. The talk takes place on February 23rd at 5:30pm at Northwestern's Evanston campus. Click here for more information.

Alex Kotlowitz is currently writer in residence at the Northwestern University Center for Writing Arts. Click here to read an article about a recent talk he gave at the Center where demo footage of The Interrupters was shown.