OFFBEAT: 'Interrupters' at VU along with advocate Cobe Williams

Kartemquin Films Publicist Patrick Lile tipped me off about a great free event this weekend.

Lile, who was born and raised in Merrillville, is one of the outreach coordinators for the documentary "The Interrupters."

If you're not familiar with the film, "The Interrupters" made the "50 Best of 2011" list by critic Roger Ebert.

At 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15, there's a free screening of "The Interrupters" at Valparaiso University at the Christopher Center in Room 205.

This will be the first screening of "The Interrupters" in Northwest Indiana.

Following Sunday's screening, there will be a Q&A session with Cobe Williams, one of the violence interrupters featured in the documentary.

Patrick said he will also be returning to the region to attend and talk about the outreach plans for this Sundance Film Fest documentary.

I'm told there's also the option of an encore screening at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17, at Wesemann Hall, Room 160 at the VU School of Law.

"The Interrupters" tells the moving and surprising stories of three "Violence Interrupters" who make it their mission to try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they once employed.

From Steve James, the acclaimed director of the 1994 dream "Hoop Dreams," and bestselling author Alex Kotlowitz, this film is an unusually intimate journey into the stubborn persistence of violence in our cities.

Shot over the course of a year by Chicago production company Kartemquin Films, "The Interrupters" captures a period in Chicago when it became a national symbol for the violence in our cities. During that period, the city was besieged by high-profile incidents, most notably the brutal beating of Derrion Albert, a Chicago high school student, whose death was caught on videotape.

The film's main subjects work for an innovative organization, CeaseFire. It was founded by an epidemiologist, Gary Slutkin, who believes that the spread of violence mimics the spread of infectious diseases, and so the treatment should be similar: "Go after the most infected, and stop the infection at its source."

One of the cornerstones of the organization are the "Violence Interrupters," operated as a program created by Tio Hardiman. The interrupters, who have credibility on the streets because of their own personal histories, work to intervene in conflicts "before they explode into violence."

In the documentary, Ameena Matthews, whose father is Jeff Fort — one of the city's most notorious gang leaders, is shown as a drug ring enforcer. But having children and finding solace in her Muslim faith pulled her off the streets and grounded her. In the wake of Derrion Albert's death, Ameena becomes a close confidante to his mother, and helps her through her grieving.

Cobe Williams, scarred by his father's murder, was in and out of prison, until he had had enough. Cobe disarms others with his humor and his general good nature.

Eddie Bocanegra is haunted by a murder he committed when he was 17. His CeaseFire work is a part of his repentance.

"The Interrupters" follows Ameena, Cobe and Eddie as they go about their work, and while doing so reveals their own inspired journeys of hope and redemption.

The film attempts to make sense of what CeaseFire's Tio Hardiman calls, simply, "the madness."

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at philip.potempa@nwi.com or (219) 852-4327.