The Interrupters

Kartemquin is proud to announce that The Interrupters has been selected as one of 10 finalists for a 2010 San Francisco Film Society / Film Arts Foundation Documentary grant. The winner of the $25,000 grant will be announced on May 5 at the SFIFF53 Golden Gate Awards. Get more information.

The film, directed/produced by Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Stevie, No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson), and written/produced by Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here) is currently in production and will be released in 2011.

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.

Kartemquin is proud to release the video of noted author and journalist Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here) delivering the keynote speech from our recent 15th anniversary celebration of Hoop Dreams. Discussing the impact of the film, his current film collaboration with director Steve James (The Interrupters), and the importance of Kartemquin's ongoing legacy of social issue documentary filmmaking, Kotlowitz states:

"Kartemquin, in my mind, is a national treasure. It's a place that nurtures storytellers and storytelling. What I've come to so admire about Kartemquin is that it recognizes the often fierce power of narrative. Because of that, in these times, I think Kartemquin feels absolutely essential."

Click here to watch the full video.

Acclaimed Kartemquin filmmaker Steve James will attend the Chinese premieres of his award-winning documentaries Hoop Dreams and Stevie this December in Beijing. The screenings are a part of the IDOCS International Documentary Forum, a week-long celebration of documentary film taking place at the nation's top cinema school, the Beijing Film Academy, from December 12-17. 

The unmissable double-bill of the acknowledged classics Hoop Dreams and Stevie occurs on December 13th. Despite garenering numerous awards and praise over the years, neither film has ever played inside the world's most populous nation until now. Steve James will participate in Q+A's after both screenings.

Steve will also take part in several panels discussing his own career and the current state of documentary film throughout the week (see our events page for full listings). A highlight of the week will be an exclusive, in-depth 'master class' on the production of Stevie on December 14th, in which Steve James will discuss the film with director Peter Wintonick (Manufacturing Consent).

For more information, please visit the official website.

Kartemquin is proud to announce two groundbreaking new documentaries, currently in development in Chicago.

The Interrupters, directed/produced by Steve James (Hoop Dreams, No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson) and produced/written by acclaimed journalist Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here, Never a City So Real), tells the story of a group of men and women, many of them former gang leaders, who now work for the group CeaseFire and risk their lives by intervening in violent situations across the city of Chicago.

Also, Kartemquin's first ever Diversity Fellow, Usama Alshaibi, is developing American Arab, (working title) a feature-length documentary.

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