The Sundance favorite "The Interrupters," one of the year's most acclaimed documentaries and the new work from the director of the landmark "Hoop Dreams," has been acquired for theatrical and non-theatrical distribution by the Cinema Guild.
The film will be released theatrically this summer. In 2012, it will be broadcast on PBS Frontline and released digitally and on home video by PBS Distribution.
"The Interrupters," which was directed, produced and shot by Steve James and produced by Alex Kotlowitz, deals with inner-city violence in Chicago as it follows so-called "Violence Interrupters," former gang members who now mediate gang disputes and try to stop the violence they once employed.
In the New York Times, Manohla Dargis called the film "gut-wrenching," while Ray Pride termed it "emotionally pungent, uncommonly intimate work."
“Both an immersive cinematic experience and an epic feat of storytelling, ‘The Interrupters’ grabs you from the first tension-filled moments and never lets go,” the Cinema Guild's Ryan Krivoshey said in a press release announcing the acquisition. He also said the film "will surely spark much needed debate on violence in America among audiences and throughout the media landscape.”
Steve James is the producer/director of "Hoop Dreams," "The New Americans" and "At the Death House Door," among other films. Alex Kotlowitz is the author of the bestseller "There Are No Children Here," and a contributor to the New York Times Magazine and public radio's "This American Life."
David Poland has already predicted that the film will win next year's Academy Award in the Documentary Feature category. James' "Hoop Dreams," one of the most celebrated films of 1994, failed to be nominated in one of the most infamous snubs in Oscar history.
