The Interrupters

From acclaimed producer-director Steve James ("Hoop Dreams") and best-selling author-turned-producer Alex Kotlowitz ("There Are No Children Here"), an unusually intimate journey into the stubborn persistence of violence in our cities.

Not long after Cobe began to work with Lil Mikey, who had just been released from prison, Lil Mikey found a new calling as an outreach worker for CeaseFire. Just 18 years old at the time, he was their youngest employee to date. Here, he discusses the job opportunity.

Not long after Cobe began to work with Lil Mikey, who had just been released from prison, Lil Mikey found a new calling as an outreach worker for CeaseFire. Just 18 years old at the time, he was their youngest employee to date. Here, he discusses the job opportunity.

Cobe started to follow in the footsteps of his father, selling drugs and going to jail, and reflects here about how his grandmother's love helped turn his life around. "I probably have broken her heart a lot of times doing things I shouldn't be doing," he admits about his grandmother. "But she always reminds me of the good in me."

Caprysha said she never thought she would get her high school diploma, but in January 2011, she did just that. "I might've had a lot of bumps in the road, my attitude problem, crushing everybody, but I wound up going to school, just doing what I need to do the most," Caprysha happily said upon receiving it. Ameena, who spoke at the ceremony, told the graduates, "You're no different than me."

"This has got to stop," Anjanette Albert, whose son Derrion was killed in September 2009 after he was pulled into a fight and severely beaten. Footage of his death captured on a cell phone helped to identify and convict five young men in his murder, but for Anjanette, the pain doesn't stop.

Upset after learning from police that some of the interrupters are still involved in criminal activity, program director Tio Hardiman warns that they could be ruining the program for everyone else. "I'm not saying this job is everything," he cautions, "but this job does mean a lot to some people."

The murder of 16-year-old honors student Derrion Albert -- who was the victim of a violent confrontation between rival gangs in September 2009 -- was captured in a cell phone video that went viral, drawing attention to the nation's youth violence problem. In this excerpt from "The Interrupters," CeaseFire's Ameena Matthews helps Derrion's mother Anjanette Albert plan his funeral and vigil.

Just a day after Caprysha walked away from Ameena on the park bench, she was back in a juvenile correctional facility for violating her parole. Here, Ameena visits Caprysha at the Illinois Youth Center at Warrenville. "When she gets out, what awaits Caprysha is her," says Ameena. "It's gonna be a rough road."

"When you call and tell me you love me, I get worried," Toya tells her son Kenneth, "but I feel good at the same time to hear it." Their relationship is improving, and Toya says that Cobe made a difference in her sons' lives, "because they never really had a male role model."

Between working for his undergraduate degree and his job as a CeaseFire interrupter, Eddie has his hands full, but when his family comes to visit, we learn more about why Eddie joined the gang life, and how he became who he is today.

This special educational module introduces Ameena Matthews, former drug ring enforcer and daughter of one of Chicago's most notorious gang leaders, who uses her unique skills as a violence interrupter to de-escalate conflicts before they turn to bloodshed. Explore the role gender plays in engaging communities and changing social norms around peace and violence.