IMDb RATING
7.5/10
3.6K
YOUR RATING
A year in the life of a city grappling with urban violence.A year in the life of a city grappling with urban violence.A year in the life of a city grappling with urban violence.
- Awards
- 10 wins & 17 nominations total
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured review
I came to see this movie to learn more about the method. Yet one hour in and it's still about the life in a Chicago suburb. Okay. Deceitful advertising. It is not about the method. It is about the neighborhood. I can take that. But beyond exploitation of the pain there is nothing. The only facts come from publicly available video clips. It's about poverty. The government is pouring billions into aid, yet the only ones getting well are the state employees. But the issue of poverty is only blurred in the background. At times the audience catches glimpses of religious leaders leeching on the pain and suffering to scam some more money. They talk the same talk that was heard for two hundred years and more in poor towns. And the violence does not seem to decrease. Yet, the producers don't want to touch that issue either.
Somehow the audience is tricked into believing that the interrupters are picked from the community. But they are all community leaders. People with family and relationships. The upper middle class of the poor side of the city. So again, no help from the outside. Like the producers of this documentary, people come, see and go their own way. And the people stuck in there are left there to deal with the mess.
Bottom line: an amateurish job with fuzzy goals and dubious scene selection.
Somehow the audience is tricked into believing that the interrupters are picked from the community. But they are all community leaders. People with family and relationships. The upper middle class of the poor side of the city. So again, no help from the outside. Like the producers of this documentary, people come, see and go their own way. And the people stuck in there are left there to deal with the mess.
Bottom line: an amateurish job with fuzzy goals and dubious scene selection.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film is Steve James' sixth feature length collaboration with his long-time filmmaking home, the non-profit Chicago production studio Kartemquin Films, and is also his fifth feature to screen at the Sundance Film Festival.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #2.12 (2011)
- SoundtracksWe Came To Party
Written by Brendon Dallas a.k.a. Money Flip
Performed by Money Flip featuring Punch G and Ace Da God
Courtesy of HollaScreem Records
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Untitled Steve James Project
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $282,448
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $7,920
- Jul 31, 2011
- Gross worldwide
- $286,457
- Runtime2 hours 5 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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