The Interrupters Documentary Analysis

Firstly, it is important to understand how the documentary form is best suited to illustrate the film’s theme. In order to do this, one must have an overview of the documentary style of filmmaking. Documentaries concern themselves with the “exploration of

In the text of “Blocking the Transmission of Violence” a man named Zale Hoddenbach gives his testimony on how he ended where he is today. He works in the streets of Chicago as a CeaseFire interrupter. A CeaseFire interrupter is someone who works with kids and even adults who are involved in gang activity. One event will lead to another and another and so on. The goal of the CeaseFire is not to rid of gangs but to rid of the violence. They share their personal story with people on the

In the essay “Thirty-Eight who saw Murder didn’t call the Police”, Martin Gansberg describes how selfish and inconsiderable some people can be. He claims that society should be more involved in taking action when seeing violent or life threatening events occurring in their communities.

A documentary is a genre of film that provides a factual report on a particular story, viewpoint, message or experience. In this essay, two documentaries, Bowling for columbine by Michael Moore and Made in Bangladesh by CBC news will be explored to show how persuasive techniques are used to make an audience feel a particular way.

The documentary “Fed Up” provides some important and disturbing details of the food industry. The 1977 heart disease and diet study known as the McGovern Report warned that the obesity rate was increasing rapidly due to American diets in fatty meats, saturated fats, cholesterol, and sugar. The food industry vehemently denied these claims, but the American people still demanded lower fat food products. The food manufacturers found that the fat removal made the food bland and unpalatable so to address this they replaced the fat content with sugar. Both the documentary and the Harvard Nutrition Source discuss the role sugar has in health conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. They both link the consumption of sugar as the causality for

This is an example of being proactive to a situation where cooperation among the government, police and its people through the media and programs implemented were able to reduce such a devastating disease that along claiming human life, is also expensive to treat in the long run causing a economic impact.

Geoffrey Canada pens a book that is part biography, part social view, a very thoughtful look into inner-city violence and the rules surrounding it. The book describes how his personal history with violence influenced his work with youth and the programs that he has started to support them. Geoffrey Canada describes the progression of violence that had happened in his lifetime. He also points out that there is a disturbing difference between what the streets were like in the 1960s compared to those of today.

Inner city violence is a subject of great importance to the social work community in that it severely impacts the quality of human life, and there are still substantial improvements that need to be made in order to solve this epidemic. Essentially inner city violence, like that displayed in “The Interrupters”, suggests dilemmas through all levels of work, from micro to macro. On a micro level, it is clear that interpersonal conflict both creates and sustains the violence in these communities. From a mezzo level standpoint, it is clear that the violence does not only affect the individuals involved, but the community as a whole. Lastly, inner city violence can greatly be looked

Throughout the article “The Code of the Streets,” Elijah Anderson explains the differences between “decent” and “street” people that can be applied to the approaches of social control, labeling, and social conflict theories when talking about the violence among inner cities due to cultural adaptations.

Gary Slutkin gave an argument at a TED talk titled Let’s treat violence like a contagious disease, and during his talk he exemplified rhetorical erudition. Slutkin is an epidemiologist, the founder of Cure Violence, and a physician trained in infectious diseases (Slutkin). All of these show his ethos. He is a man of great character that wants less violence. He is the author of this speech,

Part biography, part social view, a very thoughtful look into inner-city violence and the rules surrounding it. This book describes how his personal history with violence influenced his work with youth and the programs that he has started to support youth. Geoffrey Canada describes the progression of violence that had happened in his lifetime. He also points out that there is a disturbing difference between what the streets were like in the 1960s compared to those of today.

The documentary, The Interrupters, focus on the impact education has in the brutality and bloodshed in the United States. Chicago, Illinois is one of the most violent cities in the US, and because of this multiple violent prevention projects were formed.The documentary followed “interruptors” of violence in the streets of Chicago through mediation. “Interrupters” are former high ranking gang members who volunteered to stop the violence in hopes to save lives. One of the major “interruptors” that deserve to be focused on is Ameena Matthews. Mrs. Matthews has an extensive ties to the gangs activity in Chicago. Her father, Jeff Fort, was one of the first and most dominant gang leaders of Chicago. When in care of her mother, Matthews was mentally, physically, and sexually abused as a child from ages of 9-15 years old. Matthews then returned to live with her grandmother in an overcrowded roach filled apartment. In attempts to develop a better life for her and her grandmother, Matthews became involved with the mob. Matthews developed a reputation for herself and quickly became the only female lieutenant in the mob she participated in. She then became consumed with the lifestyle and its benefits. Matthews reverted from the gang when she started to become more involved in the church of Islam, where she found her husband Imam.When speaking about the origin of her gang affiliation, Matthews stated that she was strongly influenced by those in

“The documentary tradition as a continually developing “record” that is made in so many ways, with different voices and vision, intents and concerns, and with each contributor, finally, needing to meet a personal text” (Coles 218). Coles writes “The Tradition: Fact and Fiction” and describes the process of documenting, and what it is to be a documentarian. He clearly explains through many examples and across disciplines that there is no “fact or fiction” but it is intertwined, all in the eye of the maker. The documentarian shows human actuality; they each design their own work to their own standards based on personal opinion, values, interest and whom they want the art to appeal to.

This documentary has a voice which is the most important part of any movie, furthermore, it has it own way of living and breathing and speaking to

Ideal subjects for documentaries according to the direct cinema ethos were: 1) A person who is interesting; 2) A person who is in an interesting situation which s/he cares deeply about; 3) A subject where a conclusion can be arrived at in a limited time; and 4) A subject where there is easy access to events.