The

Interrupters

Directed by Steve James

AMEENA MATTHEWS

TIO HARDIMAN

COBE WILLIAMS

EDDIE BOCANEGRA

CAPRYSHA ANDERSON

From: www.shook.fm/content/2011/12/the-interrupters/

“We spoke to Ameena Matthews, one of the stars of the film, over the phone from Chicago…

Watching you in action, the way you intervene in situations, the way you provide support to really fragile subjects, is awe-inspiring.I‟m very honoured to have that gift. Some people wish they could sing, some people wish they could dance, I just want to be able to be effective and help people change their lives. That‟s my goal, that‟s my purpose.”

Can you tell us the latest on Caprysha who is going through a very difficult time in the film?

Caprysha is a hot mess still. She‟s locked up still and she‟s in the process of waiting to get paroled and look for housing, because she‟ll be 21 soon and it‟s no more Juvenile Detention Center for her – she‟ll go into Illinois Department of Corrections women facility. But she‟s doing good. I spoke to her last week and before the weather gets bad I‟ll ride up there to where she is.

How do know where to draw the line with how far you get involved with these young people’s lives?

In dealing with people‟s lives, and being responsible for their lives, it‟s not like the shut-off 9-5 type of thing. So really they allow me to know what my boundaries are. Like with Caprysha, she‟s wasn‟t ready to make a decision to change her life. She had another run in her. She wanted to do it her way and see if it would work. So she let me know that. There‟s no handbook on how to be a productive member of society. It‟s just doing the right things for the right reasons, and if you‟re still not doing that after our engagement, that‟s cut off for me. I‟m not going to harbour a fugitive. I‟m not going to aid and abet illegal behaviour. So they let me know what they need – whether it‟s just a kind word, or to get something to eat. Just taking baby steps. And then they might go „Now I‟m ready to get my GED,‟ or „Now I‟m ready to visit my mom‟ or „I‟m ready to go make amends to people that I harmed in the midst of the drama that I caused‟.

How do you deal with all the pain?

It‟s hard to deal with all the pain, but I come from that background so I can i.d. with it. We, as a people, can write our own ending to the book. It‟s going to take a miracle and blessings upon our people to get them to understand to change their mindset that violence is not a good thing. So you take it one day at a time, one youth at a time, or sometimes in my case I have five or six I‟m juggling at one time. If I can get somebody to put their guns down, and don‟t shoot anybody, we can deal with the underlying issues, we really can. But if you shoot somebody and catch a murder, I can‟t really help you.

Is the government doing enough?

I‟m not a political person. I‟ve just got to do my part and hopefully the government will do the right thing to get people education, food, housing. I don‟t like to do the political type conversation about what the government is and is not doing. As a whole country, we can always do more. But people know from their hearts what the right thing is. To have kids not able to go to school, and not have proper health care, guns being dropped in our communities… people know the difference between right and wrong, whether that‟s the government, the school board, or my neighbour.

With CeaseFire, is it the case that it’s the community that’s best equipped to solve its own problems?

We as a black people have been so abused all the way back from slavery and there are issues we haven‟t dealt with, unresolved emotions, and it‟s always a consistent burden put on our community. And yes, we do have to fix our own problems, however some of our problems are not problems that we created.