What I Watched -- The Interrupters

I don't remember where I heard about The Interrupters, which is both a hopeless and hopeful story of a community group in Chicago; they call themselves violence interrupters.  (They are a division of a group called Cure Violence, formerly known as CeaseFire.)  The group members, most of them former criminals themselves, come together to try to stop crime in one of the most violent neighborhoods in the city.  (They work in a few places besides Chicago as well.)

The film primarily follows three interrupters - Ameena, Eddie, and Cobe - in 2009 and 2010.  What you get are amazing stories of people willing to risk their own lives in an effort to improve their communities, with some small measure of success to show for it.

Bottom line: as I said, hopeless and hopeful.  Where are these kids' parents?  How did they get so off track?  (In one case, we know where the mom is - hiding from her own kids.)  But even when there are no parents, there is someone, even if it is an ex-con, willing to step up and make a change.