The Interrupters
International Version
(119 minutes)
[10:00:00:00]
Fade in on Chicago skyline, seen from the Southwest. Shots of police on horseback, van
News Anchor 2 (VO): ...it was a violent night in Chicago. Nine people were shot in just 5 hours, one person died.
[10:00:05:09]
News Anchor 3: Gregory Robinson is the 28th Chicago Public School student killed this school year--
[10:00:10:14]
News Anchor 4: ...died last Friday shot in the back…
Shots of helicopters
[10:00:12:20]
News Anchor 2 (VO): …124 people have been
killed so far...about the number of Americans killed during the same period in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Group of kids arriving, CeaseFire folks handing out flyers.
[10:00:17:21]
News Anchor 4: Sadly in another sign of the times, members of CeaseFire were also at today’s memorial service hoping to stop any thoughts of retaliation for Greg’s murder.
[10:00:26.17]
Cemetery sign, Sheriffs,
Man (VO): Twelve, thirteen-year-olds are walking around with, with bullet-proof vests on up under their clothes.
[10:00:30:16]
Shot of men carrying a coffin. Cut to TS of man crying.
[10:00:37:00]
Congregation: Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us…
Cut to MS of young people at the funeral, wearing hoodies and baseball caps. Various mourners.
[10:00:45:11]
Congregation: …and lead us not into temptation…
More mourners
Fade out
[10:01:04.06]
TITLE CARD: The Interrupters
[10:01:08.14]
Fade in: TITLE CARD: One year in the life of a city grappling with violence
[10:00:10:14]
Fade in on WS of students in a common area outside.
[10:01:15:09]
LOWER THIRD: University of Illinois at Chicago
Cut to shot of exterior of University building, then a WS of Tio walking down a hallway inside. He walks into a meeting room full of CeaseFire interrupters.
[10:01:22:00]
Cut to Medium shots of interrupters around the table, listening as Tio talks.
LOWER THIRD: CeaseFire Interrupters Meeting
Tio: Alright, let's close up. Everybody that's in the meeting, this is serious now, okay? We're in a crisis mode, and we need people to step up this table and go over and beyond, guys are getting killed for just anything. Have there been any conflicts mediated on the front end? From last week to this week?
[10:01:39:03]
Yellow Backward Hat (VO): Two guys was arguing. One guy threatened to blow the other guy's wig back.
[10:02:44.06]
Cut to MS of man with yellow hat, then to closeups of other interrupters listening.
Yellow Backward Hat: I got him to calm down, tell him he didn't shoot you, he was just talking. We stopped that one on the front end.
Cut to MS of Amena at meeting, MS of Zale speaking, closeups of interrupters
Cut to MS of Tio listening, interrupters listening at the table.
[10:01:50:11]
Tio (VO): I have the dirty dozen at the table.
[10:01:52.08]
Cut to MS of Tio in formal interview.
Tio: We've always had outreach workers, but the violence was not necessarily going down at that point.
LOWER THIRD: Tio Hardiman
Creator and Director
Violence Interrupters Program
[10:01:57.16]
Cut to closups of various interrupters listening.
Tio (VO): So in the year 2004, we began a new concept called the violence interrupters. Most of the violence interrupters come from the hierarchy in some of these gangs. Because can't no anybody come in and tell a guy to put his gun down.
[10:02:10.10]
Swanky: SUBTITLE: They kept calling me, “Man they shooting!” I said, what you want me to do? What you want me to do?
Cut to closups of interrupters.
[10:02:14:17]
Tio (VO): The violence interrupters have one goal in mind: to stop killings. They're not trying to dismantle gangs, what they're trying to do is save a life.
[10:02:22:00]
Swanky: …. I might get shot.
[10:02:23:00]
Music and montage begins
Cut to MS of kids walking through grass.
Cut to WS man buying fruit from a fruit truck.
Cut to MS of teenagers walking down street.
Cut to WS men playing chess near fruit truck.
Cut to WS of guy selling water under El tracks.
Guy: I better! What you mean…
MIDDLE THIRD: SUMMER
[10:02:47:23]
Cut to WS of Ceasefire Englewood office.
LOWER THIRD: CeaseFire Englewood
Neighborhood office
Cut to Ameena and Cobe sitting at a small table with other Ceasefire workers.
Ameena: After what happened a week and a half ago, nobody’s been changed. Nobody’s come through shooting.
[10:02:57:17]
Cut to MS of man looking toward outside.
Man: Ameena.
Ameena: --What happened?
SUBTITLE: Man's Voice: We actually got an incident right out front.
[10:03:02:05]
Ceasefire workers get up and walk outside. Camera tracks with them.
Ameena (VO & ON CAM): By the time we got out there, the fight had just ended.
LOWER THIRD: Ameena Matthews
Violence Interrupter
Cut to TS of woman in beige hat.
Cut to shot of young men standing on sidewalk outside.
Young Man (VO): The cops pulled up and pulled off. Y'all missed that shit.
[10:03:11:15]
Cut to MS of man in white shirt near CeaseFire interrupters on sidewalk.
White Shirt: The cops pulled up and they left. They're scared. They're scared of the community.
[10:03:16:03]
Cut to WS of guy standing with other guys behind a fence, leaning over.
Ameena (VO): One group of guys said the young man threatened that he had a gun, and that he was gonna kill him. So he started fighting and ended up getting his teeth knocked out.
Cut to MS of young man, face beat up and no shirt on, drinking from a water bottle and walking quickly with two CeaseFire workers.
[10:03:27:20]
Cut to MS of young man in CeaseFire office with towel at his face.
Male Voice: He needs to go to a doctor.
Ameena: So you want to go to the emergency room?
Cobe: Come on. Let's take him. Come on.
[10:03:33:00]
Fighting Guy moaning
Ameena (VO): Cobe got him off location. And I asked Cobe to take him to the hospital.
Fighting Guy: Uh, these bitchass niggas.
Fighting Guy: SUBTITLE: I’m gonna pop them! Watch this!
[10:03:43:00]
Cut to MS of Ameena outside on the block.
Ameena (VO): The block got quiet, and I'm looking down the street, and here comes the sisters of the guy that got his tooth knocked out. They came to defend their brother's honor
Cut to MS of Ameena trying to calm angry sisters down on the street.
Ameena (VO): With a butcher knife.
Sisters and guys near them shout things at each other.
Ameena (VO): The sister calls one of the guys a bitch-ass, punk-ass. The little four and five year old baby was doing the same thing.
[10:04:07:20]
Sister: I’m a knock your bitch ass out.
Sister: Run up then. Run up then. Run up then.
Brown Shirt: You going to never knock me out!
Ameena pushes a guy in a brown shirt away from the sisters, while the guy is shouting.
SUBTITLE: Ameena: Look at her like you look at me.
[10:04:20:16]
Brown Shirt: You respecting yourself. She ain't respecting herself.
Ameena: I know but still …(unclear)
SUBTITLE: Brown Shirt: Her brother goddamn shouldn't be woofing.
[10:04:26:05]
Ameena: But still.
They continue shouting.
Ameena (VO): The story about sticks and stones may break your bones but words can never hurt you.
Cut to Ameena in formal interview.
Ameena: Words'll get you killed.
[10:04:34.09]
Cut to shot of guys on the street, walking away with Ameena. One of the sisters runs up with a brick.
Ameena (VO): All of the sudden, the sister ran up with a piece of concrete.
Cut to WS of the crowd running around each other, shouting.
[10:04:48:17]
Ameena (VO): One of the girls was about to stab one of the guys.
Someone knocks the knife out of the girl's hand. People are shouting names at each other.
Ameena (VO]: Her cousin picked up the butcher knife.
LOWER THIRD: Dee
(hit by the brick)
Ameena (VO): Dee, was in the heat of the moment, that adrenaline was still going, that I'm gonna fuck them up. I'm gonna get them back.
Guy (VO): She just hit my man with a rock.
[10:05:18:19]
Cut to MS of Ameena getting into a car with Dee.
Ameena: Eighty-third and Wolcott. A-ight.
Ameena (VO): I picked up Dee. I said, you need to get off the block for a minute.
[10:05:23:19]
Cut to TS of Dee.
Dee: He was out of line. He was out of pocket. He was very disrespectful. And I know how many people I got out here that are willing to take care of business. We fittin to do this and all this and that.
[10:05:34:08]
Ameena (VO): His family kept calling him. You know, what's taking you so long so we can come back over there and set that block off. Cause if his family would have came to get him...
Cut to on cam with Ameena.
Ameena: Maybe it would have been a death behind it.
Cut to TS of Ameena driving Dee.
Ameena: I know you got some damn fools for family. About you. About you.
Dee: And, and, and they ready over here.
[10:05:50:19]
Cut to TS of Dee.
Ameena: Because I know you just come home.
Dee: Yeah.
Ameena: You know what I'm saying. You ain't going no problem in going back. I saw that you, wasn't, you know, you was walking away, to defend you and your family. But, and I really man...
Ameena slaps his hand.
Ameena: Man, I thank you. I mean for real. For real, that's what gangster is about right there.
[10:06:08:05]
Dee: I, I, I, I, I definitely don't want to go back.
Ameena: Wasn't that gangster?
Cut to WS of kids playing in fire hydrant on a street. Then cut to WS of Ameena on the porch with Dee and family members.
Ameena: Didn’t them girls square up like Joe Frasier?
[10:06:17:07]
Dee: Aha.
Ameena (VO): I took him over to his cousin's house. We were talking about how he got hit.
[10:06:26:10]
Cut to MS of Dee laughing. A guy behind him mimics falling over.
Ameena (VO): And he tumbled over. Like a cartoon character.
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: [Mimics falling over] Wooooo.
Cut to MS of Dee and other young people laughing on porch.
[10:06:31:23]
Ameena (VO): So, if you get them to laugh at themselves, give them a moment to pause, to think about really how crazy and funny that it was. Find that soft spot in that person.
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: Not weak. But soft spot. And, you just ride on that.
Cut to people laughing with Dee on the porch.
[10:06:49:25]
Tio (VO): Ameena Matthews as a violence interrupter, she's the golden girl. She gets in where a lot of guys can't get in. She knows how to talk to these high-risk young men.
Cut to sit-down interview with Tio.
Tio: And a lot of guys that I know, that have a lot of murder in they background, they respect her.
LOWER THIRD: Tio Hardiman
Creator and Director
Violence Interrupters Program
[10:07:02:02]
Cut to Ameena and other interrupters in parking lot where fight happened, discussing the events
Ameena: So, he all right?
Cut to Ameena walking past a police car.
Ameena (VO): The life that I lived, being in shootouts, looking at the devil, face to face.
[10:07:08:22]
Cut to formal interview with Ameena
TITLE CARD: Ameena Matthews
Ex-gang enforcer
Daughter of gang leader Jeff Fort
Ameena: And I look at my, my sisters and my brothers today, you know, that was once me.
[10:07:14:04]
Insert shot of young Jeff Fort.
Tio (VO): Her father was Jeff Fort, one of the biggest gang leaders in the history of Chicago, outside of Al Capone. Fort is serving a life sentence for allegedly conspiring with Bolivians to commit acts of terrorism here in the United States.
Cut to MS of Jeff Fort talking.
Jeff Fort: ...I understand the fact that we got polices in here.
[10:07:30:04]
Jeff Fort: ...there is not going to be any killing without killing,
Insert shot of Jeff Fort with gang members.
Tio (VO): Jeff Fort stood up against the police. He was definitely a feared and very revered man in his community.
Cut to Tio in formal interview.
Tio: ...but she never lived off that name. Ameena made her own name on the streets.
[10:07:42:13]
Cut to Ameena in formal interview.
Ameena: Growing up, it wasn't his influence that influenced me to do anything.
[10:07:49:13]
Insert young Jeff Fort.
Ameena (VO): You know, my dad was not there. When I was conceived, he was sixteen years old. So when I got older I was in a mob with a bunch of guys, and I was like the only female, that was the lieutenant. That took care of the business.
Insert young Ameena.
Ameena (VO): It was drug selling. Hustling.
[10:08:07:07]
Cut to archival shots of Chicago in the eighties. Pimps. Tough guys.
Ameena (VO): You know, one crew was on the pimping tip. One crew was on the stickup tip.
Cut to archival shots of drugs.
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: Drugs, guns, party, fun. I, that was it.
[10:08:18:16]
Cut to archival shots of disco ball, people dancing.
Insert of Ameena at a party.
Ameena: My dad wasn't around, and...
Cut to MS of Jeff Fort walkin.
Ameena: ...when he got wind of that I was a part of that team, he was kind of hurt...
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: ...but he couldn't be too hurt. Because look at what kind of precedent that he started.
[10:08:36:11]
Cut to WS of people walking down street.
Megaphone Man (VO): Ceasefire.
Crowd (VO): Ceasefire.
Cut to MS of crowd marching with CeaseFire banner.
Megaphone Man: Ceasefire.
Crowd: Ceasefire.
[10:08:40:07]
Megaphone Man: Stop the shooting.
Crowd: Stop the shooting.
Cut to MS of people standing on the street as march passes.
Megaphone Man: Stop the killing.
Crowd: Stop the killing.
Megaphone Man: I said stop it right now.
[10:08:45:22]
Cut to MS of block club sign. "Family, security, sanctity."
Crowd: Stop it right now
Cobe (VO): Young man got shot twenty-two times.
Cut to MS of stuffed animal memorial by a car.
[10:08:49:07]
Cut to Cobe.
Cobe: Thirteen years old. That's sad.
TITLE CARD: COBE WILLIAMS
Violence Interrupter
[10:08:52:16]
Cut to TS of Jesse Jackson Jr.
Jesse Jackson Jr.: This is a state of emergency. This is what the war zone looks like.
Cut to WS police officer putting on bullet-proof vest.
Cut to WS of man in red hat speaking in front of news crews, surrounded by community members.
[10:08:58:16]
Red Hat: We’re sick and tired of our babies being killed. This man here lost a son. We can't be quiet no more.
[10:09:08:05]
Cut to TS of Ameena.
Cut to TS of guy's father.
Father: My son has been killed right here and we're standing here with cameras right here where my son been slain at? Come on now. I don't think that's right. We could have did this somewhere else.
Cut to TS of news cameras and news lady.
Father: I have to sit here and try to say something to you guys. Who does that?
[10:09:22:05]
Cut to TS of Cobe listening.
Male Newscaster (VO): Would you say that there's still a code of silence going on in the neighborhood? The people aren't coming forward.
Cut to MS of police officer listening.
Father: I can't walk around, go up to people's houses and say who killed my son? I'm not a police officer, and I'm not a doctor. You know, I don't know how many times my son, they tell me twenty-two, I don't know how times my son's been shot.
[10:09:40:05]
Woman: SUBTITLE: Twenty-two.
Father: See, somebody in the background saying twenty-two. Sh- you a doctor, baby?
SUBTITLE: Auntie: I'm his auntie and that’s what the doctor told me.
Cut to MS of woman listening.
Father: That's my son, baby, you didn't make him. You his auntie.
[10:09:49:05]
Male Voice (VO): We're going to move this on past.
Father (VO): What you mean, you, watch you don't get what?
Male Voice (VO): Words of encouragement for the family.
[10:09:54:17]
Cut to shot of father walking away.
SUBTITLE: Father: Shut up! You don't know shit.
Father: You better shut up.
Cut to WS of father walking off between two men with arms around him.
SUBTITLE: Auntie: We took care of my mother fucking nephew...
SUBTITLE: Auntie: Nobody help us take care of my mother fucking nephew...
SUBTITLE: Auntie: The fuck he mean!
[10:10:04:18]
Cut to WS of police standing as police car pulls out, siren blaring.
RED HAT (VO): Let me just say this. We just had another homicide. Just now. While we're marching.
Cut to TS of man in red hat.
Red Hat: Another homicide.
[10:10:17:27]
Off-screen man: It’s a war zone.
Man: It's a war zone. And an epidemic.
Cut to WS of memorial by car.
Red Hat (VO): People, we must come together.
Cut to police officers in alley.
Ameena (VO): He was sticking people up.
[10:10:26:14]
Cut to TS of Cobe in car. Ameena leans through the window.
Ameena: The guys caught him in the walkway.
Cobe: Mm mm.
Ameena: Shameful.
Cut to WS of police in alley getting into car.
Ameena: You know we got some guys over on the next block. Some in-roads over there. It ain't gonna be no retaliation from it.
[10:10:36:16]
Cut to TS of CeaseFire business cards on dashboard.
Cut to MS of Cobe in car.
Cobe: It's just so crazy, man, because it's like, every time you come outside, somebody getting killed. I don't know what this world coming to.
[10:10:47:03]
Cobe: We got to be out here, man. Before things happen.
Tracking from window, car passes a news crew interviewing people by police tape.
Cobe (VO): All my life, I knew right from wrong. I knew if I do this, I’ll get in trouble. But at the time, I just didn’t care though.
[10:11:00:22]
Cut to formal interview with Cobe.
TITLESCREEN: Cobe Williams
Served 12 years for
drug trafficking and
attempted murder
Cobe: I always wanted to be like my dad. You know, he was my role model, because he used to always dress slick. Wear big hats and suits and, you know all that. And, I just, you know, wanted to be like him.
[10:11:15:02]
Insert archival shot of family.
Cobe (VO): I was eleven years old when my father got killed. He got beat with some baseball bats. And that just messed me up.
Cut to TS of Cobe looking at family photo.
Cobe (VO): I used to be out there in the streets all through the night. I used to be in jails: Fighting, kicking off riots, and, you know, all crazy stuff. Just gang-banging.
Cut to archival picture of young Cobe.
Cobe in the streets, hollering to someone
Cobe: Oh, what up boy? Man, come holler at me, man! What's up?
[10:11:39:22]
Tio (VO): Ricardo Cobe Williams, he's a younger interrupter, which is a good thing. Once he came on board at Ceasefire, he began to really turn the heat on.
Cut to Cobe and Hot Rod approaching two young guys in the street
[10:11:47:02]
Cut to formal interview with Tio.
Tio: Cobe knows how to get in. He talks the language.
Cobe and Hot Rod greeting two guys.
Tio (VO): And he knows what to say, when to say it.
Cobe and Hot Rod with two guys who are smoking a blunt.
Cobe: You two guys, man, you all been around hearin' a lot of bullshit. Both of you all.
Hoodie: Robbing people, breaking in windows, all kinds of stuff.
[10:12:00:14]
Cut to TS of guy in hoodie, talking
Cut to friend in white ball cap
Friend in white ball cap : Man, whenever I gotta do what I gotta do, I gotta do what I gotta do, you know. Don't get it all twisted, once upon a time this man was out here too, doing the same thing we done and did…
[10:12:09:02]
Tio (V0): Cobe has big time credibility with the gang members out there.
Friend continues: …We gonna wait for the heat to come to us…
[10:12:14:02]
Cobe greets another guy on the street.
Cobe: Breaking out… look at them.
Cobe walks up to an apartment building.
Cut to WS of Cobe sitting in living room with woman with a red jacket (Toya).
Cobe (VO): A friend of mine called me, very concerned about her two kids.
Toya: The streets is taking a toll.
Cobe (VO): They stay in the same house. And they be at each other because both of 'em are in two different cliques.
[10:12:28:19]
Cut to TS of Toya.
LOWER THIRD: Toya Batey
Toya: Just threatening to kill one another. Shooting at each other. It's just crazy. I can't keep coming off the road. You know, cause I work for Amtrak, and not knowing if somebody's gonna kick the door in because of this gang’s violence.
[10:12:40:02]
Toya: I just packed up and left. Yes.
Cobe: So.
Toya, I left the apartment in my name so they don't be homeless.
Cobe: Right.
Toya: So this my little honeycomb hideout.
[10:12:48:18]
Cobe: Oh, this your honey comb hideout.
Toya: They don't know where I live, either.
Cobe: Your kids don't?
Toya: Nope.
Cobe: Your youngest son's still locked up, right?
Toya: Yup. He don't get out 'til 2016 for attempt murder.
Cut to shot of graduation pictures.
Toya (VO): And he was seventeen when they got him.
[10:13:02.18]
Cobe: One thing, you still have all three of your kids. It's some people...
Toya: Yep, I thank God for that. People say I'm crazy because (starting to cry), I always say if I lose one of my sons, I don't want no funeral. I don't want nobody to come, you know, give me condolences. Because I want to remember them… the last decent time I seen them. And they say that's mean of me. But that's how I feel.
[10:13:34.18]
Cut to TS of Cobe.
Cobe: So just stay strong and keep your head up. Then I'm a try to reach out to them myself.
Toya: Well, I wish you luck in finding them.
Cobe: Yeah, just I'll see, what I can do.
Toya: Cause I know, if they have a strong person, that's lived that life, I think they could be saved. Cause I, I just can't do it anymore.
Cobe: Right.
[10:13:59.08]
Gary (VO): Violence is like the great infectious diseases of all history.
Cut to formal interview with Gary.
LOWER THIRD: Gary Slutkin, MD
Epidemiologist
Founder of CeaseFire
Gary: We used to look at people with plague, Leprosy, TB as bad and evil people, and something needs to be done about them and they were put in dungeons.
[10:14:15.18]
Cut to illustration of The Plague from Medieval times.
Cut to paintings of Plague sufferers
Gary (VO): What perpetuates violence can be as invisible today as the microorganisms of the past were.
[10:14:24.13]
Cut to photos of Gary in Africa for World Health Organization.
Gary (VO): I had been overseas for about ten years at World Health working on infectious diseases.
Crime scene images on West Side of Chicago.
Gary (VO): Coming back to the U.S., the violence is unavoidable. But I saw it as behavior, not as bad people. You can judge it, but it’s not what we do in science.
[10:14:46.12]
Cut to WS of Cobe mediating argument in the street. A guy with white writing on his shirt stands across from a man in a black shirt and a man in a white shirt.
White Writing: I never had nothing against Poot and them. Nothing. When I came up, like I said, they shot at my car.
Gary (VO): For the young people in these neighborhoods, they see violence as their disease.
Cut to formal interview with Gary.
Gary: What they expect to die of is this.
[10:15:03.00]
Cut to MS of man in white shirt outside.
White Shirt: Don't tell me you gonna squash something then go back and do something else, and then you done made me look like a ass.
Cut back to reaction from black shirt guy.
White Shirt: And if that's what you want to do (gesturing a gun motion), then you put on big boy shoes, then you play big boy games.
Cut to TS of people listening.
Gary (VO): Violence is a two-step process.
Cut to MS of Cobe listening to argument. Zoom in.
Gary (VO): The first thought is: I have a grievance. He looked at my girl, he called me a name, he disrespected me, he owes me money.
[10:15:23.17]
Gary (VO): He's a Sunni. He's a Palestinian. He's an Isreali.
Cut to formal interview with Gary.
Gary: The second thought is that grievance justifies violence.
Cut to MS of White Shirt man in mediation outside.
Cobe: At the end of the day, nobody gonna win, man.
[10:15:35.00]
Cut to TS of woman standing next to Cobe.
Gary (VO): Our work is about thought too.
Cut to TS of Cobe.
Cobe: Your family hurting behind this shit.
[10:15:39.16]
Cut to TS of first young man with white lettered shirt.
Cobe: That's why I'm saying ain't no point in fit- you was wrong, you was wrong. Fuck all that. You know what I'm saying, motherfuckers just trying to move on, man.
Gary (VO): So the interrupter's role, like the TB disease control worker's role…
Guys get into a van.
Cut to formal interview with Gary.
Gary (VO): …is to do this initial interruption of transmission.
[10:15:53.00]
Cut to WS of Sinai hospital sign.
Cut to WS of interrupter in an orange shirt (Earl)walking down sidewalk with a man with a cane and with his face wrapped up.
Earl (VO): … Told the officers, that you didn't, that you ain't got nothing to say, you gonna deal with it yourself?
[10:15:58.00]
Cane (VO): Right.
Tio (VO): You got to drown yourself with the people and immerse yourself in the bullshit.
[10:15:02.20]
Cut to formal interview with Tio.
Tio: You have to talk as if, man I understand, man. I been there. I know how it is to hurt a motherfucker.
LOWER THIRD: Tio Hardiman
Creator and Director
Violence Interrupters Program
Cut to MS of feet of man with cane and interrupter with orange shirt. Tilt up.
Cane: I'm not, I'm not no punk or nothing.
[10:16:11.25]
Earl: Yeah.
Cane: Only thing that came to my mind was, retaliate.
Cut to shot of Earl listening.
LOWER THIRD: Earl Sawyers
Violence Interrupter
Cane: They got to know, they did the wrong person.
[10:16:16.24]
Earl: Yeah.
Tio (VO): I hear you, Jack, you know, you a hundred per cent right. And I'm with you man, if you gonna take care of your business, take care of your business.
[10:16:23.00]
Cut to formal interview with Tio.
Tio: But check this out. If I know you want to shoot the motherfucker, the police know already, your friends know, and somebody gonna tell on your ass.
[10:16:31.12]
Cut to TS of man with face wrap and cane.
Cane: Make sure you talk to the individual that did this to me.
Cut to shot of Earl listening.
Cane: You let 'em know that you gonna keep this here peace. You doing this.
[10:16:40.00]
Tio (VO): Once you make sense out of the madness, then you start talking about the scientific theory. You start talking about the change of the behavior. Then you can give 'em a history lesson.
Cut to formal interview with Tio.
Tio: You know, your daddy was violent, your granddaddy was fucked up, he was violent. You, now all your brothers are fucked up because you misled them. It's time to save yourself, brother. Save yourself. I'm not preaching to you. Just save yourself. Does this make sense brother? “Oh man, you know what, you got a point.”
[10:17:05.07]
Cut to cane and Saywer shaking hands.
Sawyer: Allright, just give me time to work it.
Cut to formal interview with Tio.
Tio: I really understand why it's not easy for people to back down for one reason. Because you've been taught all your life...
LOWER THIRD: Tio Hardiman
Former Street Hustler
Tio: …in the community where I grew up in, you know, like, you know you got to stand up. No matter what happens. Death before dishonor.
[10:17:20.04]
Insert Tio as young guy with a fro.
Tio (VO): When I was fourteen years old, this guy beat me down in the streets. And my stepfather took his life right in front of me. And I felt, good about it, really.
Insert old photo of Tio with other men.
[10:17:30.21]
Tio: And I was always a shaky criminal. I used to sell fake hash to the sailors down on Michigan Avenue.
Insert photo of young Tio with no shirt and sunglasses on.
Tio: I used to steal smoke detectors. They called us the smoke detector bandits.
[10:17:45.21]
Insert photo of young Tio with fro and two women.
Tio: I was playing on women, a lot, you know, women would help me. I had a lot of girlfriends that would give me money because I had a big old afro back then.
Insert photo of Tio with big afro.
Insert photo of Tio with Microphone, standing next to Gary Slutkin.
Tio: First started working with CeaseFire in nineteen ninety-nine. I told Gary I had a bachelors degree at that time. (Tio laughs) And Gary asked me, he's like where is your bachelors degree at? I say, look man, hey, I was just trying to get in.
[10:18:03.00]
Insert photo of Tio's college I.D.
Tio: But I went back to school. I got my bachelor's degree, with my master's degree. I began to understand that we've been taught violence. It's, violence is learned behavior.
[10:18:10.22]
Cut to exterior of home.
LOWER THIRD: Youth Transitional Home
Tio: Hear me clearly young brothers. I don't mention gang names when I do my mediations, alright?
Cut to tight shots of young people listening to Tio.
Tio (VO): At this transitional home for teenage parolees, the residents were in conflict with one another, and they were pulling in gang members from throughout the area, and it was about to blow up in a major way.
Cut to shot of older women who appear to work at Harvard house.
[10:18:26.04]
Cut to tight shots of teens listening to Tio and Tio talking.
Tio: The problem that we have right now is about some money that lead to a fight, right? How much money was it?
Guy (VO): Like five dollars.
Tio: It was about five dollars, everybody?
Caprysha (VO): Dude said, instead of giving him five dollars, give him fifteen.
Cut to MS of Caprysha.
Caprysha: No, it don't work like that. You ain't fin a get no more than what you owed.
Then cut to MS of Curly-haired guy.
Curly-haired Guy: Me say, I'm not paying you's.
Tio: Right.
Curly-haired Guy: Then five minutes later on, they came up here.
[10:18:43.15]
Cut to MS of older woman, possibly Harvard House director.
Home Director: It took me as a woman to stand in the middle of the street with fifteen guys, that I knew, no, knew nothing of-
Tio: Right.
Home Director: And take, come out of my pocket and pay fifteen dollars to keep peace. No respect for where you live at.
Tio: You think this could turn into gun play?
[10:18:55.00]
Cut to tight shots of young people. Some say yes, others no.
Caprysha: I think so, because it's gonna escalate. It's gonna keep going and going.
Cut to medium shot of guy gesturing as he talks. His face is not visible.
White Shirt: If we got to live here, man, I don't want to bring these streets over here, man.
Cut to MS of others listening.
White Shirt: I ain't trying to go back to that life. I'm one man. I can't fight all them. What you think I'm a do?
[10:19:07.14]
SUBTITLE: White Shirt: Heck yeah I'm a go get me a thumper.
Cut to tights shots of teens listening, then a tight zoom in shot of Tio talking.
Tio: Like this brother just said, any time fifteen guys mob up on you, the first thing that comes across your mind, I need to be strapped to deal with that. If you got to live here and coexist with each other, someone has to be big enough to take the higher road.
[10:19:20.17]
Caprysha: It's gonna go through one ear and out the other.
Home Director: Look you know what, the most important thing is to pay attention to what they're saying. Cause at this site where you live at, if you cause any kind of trouble, five-oh will be called.
[10:19:29.15]
Cut to WS of Ameena outside with the other group of teens.
Ameena: I'm hearing what they telling me in there, right. And to me, it's like starting off with a five dollar bag of weed.
Lower Third: Ameena Matthews
Violence Interrupter
Cut to tight shots of young people listening.
Young Man: It's beyond that.
[10:19:37.20]
Second Young Man: It's beyond that.
Ameena: But wait a minute.
Subtitle: Second Young Man: I get fed up.
Ameena: No, no. Nah.
SUBTITLE: Second Young Man: I get into a situation I ain't supposed to be in.
Ameena: Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah. You got to play it like a big man. I got to play it like a big girl. When I get angry, I can bring some noise, if I want to. I go lay it down. I have to.
[10:19:55.03]
Ameena: Don't make me feel like a punk. It make feel like, you know what? It's fighting my own ego. I swear to god I wish I had someone to holler at me like I'm right here hollering at you. I would have not had the felony on my record. You understand what I'm saying? What we gonna do? We gonna fight about another five dollar bag of weed?
[10:20:12.00]
Second Young Man: [indistinct]
Caprysha: It ain't worth it.
Ameena: They feed off her energy, too. So what you gonna do son? Tell me. And I'm a hold you to it.
Second Young Man: Make myself better.
Ameena: You too. [To Caprysha] Little Ameena.
[10:20:24.14]
Caprysha: Hahahaha.
Second Young Man: Yo, if they want to let it go, we can let it go.
Ameena: All right, I want to see some love.
Cut to shot of rival young men shaking hands and hugging.
[10:20:34.17]
MONTAGE of different street activities in neighborhood.
Cut to MS of Ameena driving in car. Cut to shot of Englewood houses as car drives past.
[10:20:53:14]
Ameena (VO): I just love Englewood. But it's hard knocks, man. You know, it's a old saying, Englewood is all good. It's where-
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: I learned all my life's lessons.
Cut to MS of Ameena outside, by her car.
Ameena: (screaming) Ah, I locked my keys in the car.
[10:21:07:00]
Cut to MS of guy on a bike.
Guy on Bike: Ooo, I don't even know how to do that.
Cut to TS of Amena with neighborhood kids. Then MS of six or seven neighborhood kids standing by the car.
Small Guy in Blue Hoodie: I got a screw driver and a wire, a, hang-
Ameena: A screw driver. Y'all gonna tear my car up.
[10:21:13:00]
Cut to shot of kids trying to open the car.
Another Kid: What kind of lock she got?
Ameena: Whatever. [To someone passing] CeaseFire back in the hood.
Cut to MS of Ameena handing out bumper stickers to young man and woman, about thirteen-year-olds.
Ameena: [to young man] Who scratch your face? You was out here thumping?
Young guy nods.
Young Guy: I fight every day.
Ameena: You fight every day? You too handsome to be doing all of that.
[10:21:27:23]
Cut to TS of Ceasefire pamphlet.
Ameena (VO): Most of our mediations come through the community here.
Cut to MS of young kids looking at Ceasefire materials. A young girl runs up on a porch where a man is sitting.
Ameena (VO): They'll tell us that it's some tension in the air. And need us to come in and help out.
Cut to MS of Ameena putting up Ceasefire stickers.
SUBTITLE: Devonte: I'm working with the feds.
[10:21:37:10]
Ameena: Quit playing. Before I bust your nose.
Devonte pulls up pants.
Devonte: I'm a pass these out to everybody and they mama.
Ameena: Just pass 'em out to everybody and they mama, but I just didn't want to have to see your drawers in the process of passing 'em out. Did I have to?
Devonte: No.
Ameena: Well, why am I still seeing 'em?
[10:21:50:13]
Cut to MS of younger guy in yellow shirt hitting Devonte with a packet of pamphlets. Ameena hands guy some pamphlets.
Cut to MS of Ameena talking to young guy with yellow shirt.
Ameena: But I thought you had got shot in your shoulders, but it was in your leg?
[10:21:54:10]
Cut to TS of young guy with yellow shirt.
Yellow Shirt: It was these guys shooting at each other and the cars. So I jumped, cause I was trying to save my cousin. I had a big old hole in my leg, like this big.
Yellow shirted guy makes a ring with his fingers and holds it up.
Cut to MS of Ameena walking with yellow-shirted guy.
Ameena: What your grades like?
Yellow Shirt: A's B's and C's.
Ameena: A's B's and C's.
[10:22:06:13]
Yellow shirt: And one D.
Ameena: What you wanna do- What's the D in? It better not be in P.E. or I'm a hit you in your throat.
Yellow Shirt: Ha.
SUBTITLE: Young Girl: Look at his socks!
[10:22:12:17]
Ameena: Haha. I like those, too.
Camera pans down to reveal the guy is wearing neon yellow and pink socks.
SUBTITLE: Other Girl: You took them from your sister.
Cut to TS of socks. They have cherries on them.
Yellow Shirt: No I didn't. I bought these.
Children laugh.
Ameena: You think you hot, don't you?
[10:22:22:10]
Ameena (VO): When I was growing up in Englewood, we still looked out for one another. To me, it's like, there's still some hope left.
Ameena: You think you hot.
[10:22:33:13]
Cut to TS of Cobe in a car. He looks out the window.
Cobe: No, no killing. CeaseFire!
LOWER THIRD: Cobe Williams
Violence Interrupter
Cobe (VO): I've been trying to get up with Toya's two kids, man. Because both of 'em in rival cliques. It was easy to get up with Bud.
Cut to WS of highway at night. Cut to TS of Bud outside, talking to Cobe, at night.
Cobe: Your momma asked me to try to reach out, try to sit down and work with the, you and your brother, try to talk with you and all that, too, though.
LOWER THIRD: Bud Oliver
Toya's Middle Son
Bud: So, blood line, thicker than water, and like, and-
SUBTITLE: Bud: Within your bloodline, if there’s opposition,
SUBTITLE: Bud: like a different gang, that’s hard to deal with too.
[10:22:57:19]
Cobe: Right.
Bud: But I get into it with him a lot, though.
Cobe: Is there any way we can meet him and try to talk to both of y'all at the same time.
[10:23:04.00]
Bud: Yeah.
Cobe: Okay then, man.
Bud: Right, just hit me tomorrow.
[10:23:07.00]
Cobe: Okay, I'm a get up with you.
Cobe and Bud hug.
Cobe: Alright. Thanks a lot.
Bud: No trouble. I appreciate it.
Cobe: Alright.
[10:23:11.13]
Cut to WS of man sweeping outside a trailer selling hot dogs.
Cut to WS of Kenneth walking up to Cobe's car.
Cobe: He do look like a rough rider, don't he?
Cobe (VO): It took me a minute to get up with the older brother, Kenneth.
Kenneth gets into the car.
[10:23:20.15]
Cobe: What's up boy?
Kenneth: What's up?
Cobe: How you doing, man?
Kenneth: Chilling, man.
LOWER THIRD: Kenneth Oliver
Toya's Oldest Son
Cut to WS, driving over the highway, police in sight.
Cobe (VO): I might as well just be straight up honest.
[10:23:26.19]
Cut to WS of Cobe and Kenneth walking in a park, tracking.
Cobe: Your mama, she concerned about you and Bud.
Kenneth: We fight every day.
Cut to MS of Cobe and Kenneth on a park bench.
Kenneth: It’s either I knock him out or he knock me out. I mean, like -
[10:23:34.00]
Cut to WS of park bench from behind.
Kenneth: We upping pistols on each other over little shit.
Two shot of Cobe and Kenneth.
Cobe: And ya’ll live under the same roof. That mean, if ya’ll upping guns up on each other, if he go to sleep and you go to sleep, ya’ll got to sleep with one eye open. Ya’ll can’t even trust each other.
[10:23:46.04]
Kenneth: Like last year, my best friend got killed. I could get shot tomorrow. I know it's gonna hurt my mom more than anybody. You know?
Cobe: She say she just moved away because she couldn't take it no more.
[10:23:59.20]
Kenneth: I can't, I can't get along with my mom. Cause she, you act just like your daddy and shit. Woo woo woo, and-
Kenneth: I, I ain't trying to hear that. I'm gone. I'm outside. You know?
[10:24:08.16]
Kenneth: My father, he been locked up since I was three years old. He get out a little bit after I turned 18. My life would be totally different if my father was here. You know, if he was in my life. Just being involved. Checking up on me every day, and, how you doing son? What's going on? I love you, son.
Cobe: Right.
Kenneth: I can count on one hand how many times I told my momma I love her.
[10:24:29.06]
Cobe: So I'm gonna, talk to with Bud and Toya, man, and see man, we could try to get together, man, just sit down and talk, man. I ain't trying to point no finger, who wrong and all that. Let's just correct this. Let's just, be a family and be happy.
Cut to WS Cobe and Kenneth walking down a road in the park.
Cobe: So, you up with that?
[10:24:42.16]
Kenneth: Yeah, I'm with it.
[10:24:46.16]
Cut to CeaseFire meeting
Tio (VO): First and foremost, I want to thank the young brothers coming from Calumet City. Why don't you stand up in the back, if you don't mind.
Cut to shot of Caprysha and young guy in blue standing up.
Tio (VO): What happened last week, there was a big conflict with two different groups. We got a chance to really work with them young brothers. And a sister. When I met that sister she made it clear to me, she said, I'm a sister, brother, you know what I'm saying?
Cut to shot of Ameena smiling.
Ameena (VO): I been trying to call you.
Cut to MS of Ameena talking to Caprysha.
Ameena: When I call your phone, I expect you to answer, like, yeah Ameena!
Caprysha: Hahaha.
Ameena: I'm like, hello?
[10:25:12.06]
Ameena (VO): We've been keeping in contact.
Cut to TS of Caprysha.
LOWER THIRD: Caprysha Anderson
18 years-old
Ameena (VO): Caprysha is a very loving young lady that had not had a chance to have a childhood.
[10:25:20.05]
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: Substance abuse plays a, a huge part of the toxicness that she was raised around.
Cut to MS of Ameena with Caprysha after Ceasefire meeting.
Ameena: I was worried. I know you wanted to go see your mother. But...
SUBTITLE: Ameena: Your momma don't want you to see her?
[10:25:33.15]
SUBTITLE: Ameena: You think she using?
Caprysha nods her head yes.
Ameena: Do you want to go?
SUBTITLE: Ameena: Or do you think if you see her you'll get mad?
Caprysha: I'll get mad.
Ameena: Alright, so we just gonna have to keep it moving. You gotta get, do you, be a big girl.
[10:25:48.12]
Caprysha nods her head yes.
Ameena: You want to go skating this weekend?
Caprysha nods.
Ameena: You do?
Caprysha: Yeah.
Ameena: Okay. I'm a send a car for you this weekend, cause it's my eight-year-old's birthday.
SUBTITLE: Ameena: She's… a hot-ass mess.
[10:26:00.21]
Ameena: If I got time, I'll come and get you myself. Alright, baby?
Ameena and Caprysha hug.
[10:26:07.04]
Cut to WS, exterior of roller skating rink.
Cut to WS of several men in red hats skating around a rink in unison.
Cut to MS of Ameena.
Ameena: Where is my husband?
[10:26:18.12]
Cut to WS of Ameena's husband and several over men dancing on roller skates in unison in center of rink.
Ameena: Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
[10:26:30.00]
Cut to MS of women dancing then pan to men dancing next to Ameena.
Ameena (VO): Today was a celebration for my daughter's birthday party.
Cut to MS of Ameena and other women dancing.
Cut to TS of skates moving across the floor.
Ameena (VO): We’re really sad, because Caprysha was going to come skating with us.
[10:26:46.15]
Cut to TS of Ameena holding a camera as her daughter gets ready to blow out the birthday cake. Guests all sing "May Allah bless you."
Ameena (VO): So then I got the full scoop.
Cut to MS of Ameena's daughter smiling.
[10:26:52.15]
Ameena (VO) She wanted to get back in touch with her mom. And that caused her to feel.
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: And she acted out on some old behavior.
Cut back to party.
Ameena (VO): She got high. She violated her parole.
Cut to TS of cake cutting.
Ameena (VO): So, she's in the county jail.
[10:27:07.08]
Cut to TS of cake on young girl's plate.
Ameena: I need you guys to say please and thank you. Right Maddie? Okay? Right, right, right?
Fade to black.
[10:27:15.20]
Fade to WS of mail man walking up with mail cart and delivering mail to a house.
Cut to MS of Cobe in a car with Bud, Toya, and Kenneth.
Kenneth: So where you find these strangers at?
Cobe: Aha. These your people, man.
Bud: Ah, where y'all find him at?
LOWER THIRD: Kenneth, Toya, Bud.
Cobe (VO): Today I finally reached Toya and her two kids and we agreed to all sit down together and work things out.
Cut to MS of family sitting in the back of Cobe's van.
Cobe (VO): This morning, Toya was steaming hot. She went by the apartment she left her kids. She saw Kenneth's friend in there, bagging up some drugs. She went back and changed the locks.
[10:27:43.03]
Cobe: Shit, times hard. You got to have a job out here, man.
[10:27:46.03]
Kenneth: Yeah, man, or hustle. One or the other.
Toya: Hustling going to end you up one of two places.
Kenneth: It really don't matter right now.
[10:27:53.13]
Toya: Well, if it don't matter, why speak on it?
Bud: I guess that's the same as your life. You not gonna make no progress.
Cut to TS of Cobe listening. Cut to MS of family in the back.
Bud: You just got to learn to humble yourself. You thinking like, you want a hand out. No one's going to give you anything.
[10:27:43.03]
Kenneth: Who you talking to? Him or me?
Bud: I'm talking, I'm talking in general, and if you listening, then I'm talking to you, too.
Kenneth: I'm really not listening to shit you're saying, if you really want to know.
Bud: That's why you in the predicament you is, now.
[10:28:13.11]
Cut to TS of Cobe listening and looking back at them in the rear view mirror.
Bud: I don't have time for this shit.
Toya: Ain't nothing to make nobody happy.
Bud: What you been through that’s so hard? What you been through that’s so hard?
[10:27:42.03]
Cut to MS of family in the back.
Kenneth: So what the fuck is you saying, B? You ain’t no boss of me boy.
Cut to TS of Toya in back.
Cut to MS of family.
Kenneth: SUBTITLE: Your crowd who you be around, that don’t make you no motherfucking man nigga.
Bud: Push comes to shove, whatever I say gonna go. If I want to, if I don't want no motherfucker out there, ain't nobody gonna be out there, nigger. Now what? Now what you gonna say?
Kenneth: That’s how you look at it. That’s how you look at it.
[10:28:31.20]
Kenneth: SUBTITLE: You’ll shoot at that crowd, then it’s on.
Kenneth: And I’m right there. Then it’s on.
Bud: SUBTITLE: Is you going to ride with your guys?
[10:28:36.07]
Cobe (overlap): Hey, hey. Hey bud and Kenneth.
Kenneth and Bud continue shouting.
Cobe: Kenneth and Bud.
[10:28:41.12]
Cobe (VO): On our way down there I'm like, damn, did I make a mistake? You know what I'm saying? I don't want them to get to fighting under my watch.
Cobe: I'm saying, one thing y'all missing, man. Y'all is blood brothers, man. Y'all ain't no bad kids.
[10:28:53.15]
Cut to TS of Bud and Kenneth and listening.
Cobe: Both of y'all finished school. Both of y'all ain't been to motherfucking penitenti- that's good.
Kenneth: I just hate how my own, my own people just think like, yeah, Kenneth, the type of crowd he be around-
Toya: Boy, if I wasn't the parent that I was, you wouldn't have made it through school. I made sure you had what you needed.
[10:29:07.10]
Cobe: Hey, hey, but Kenneth, I’m gonna tell you this though. She don't want to see shit happen to y'all, man.
Toya: He can't say when he need, or he need a bond I'm not there. I always bond him out of jail for stuff that I don't even believe in.
Kenneth: I don't need no, no, no other motherfucker. I never served for another man, or none of that shit.
Toya: Yes you have.
Kenneth: Always been on my own two.
Toya: Yes you have. Yes you have.
Kenneth: Always been on my own two.
[10:29:24.17]
Toya: That's what you want.
Kenneth: If I, if I, if I had got something from another motherfucker, Cobe, I took it.
Toya: (Shouting over him) That's what you want to believe.
Kenneth: Plain and simple. Cause I feel the motherfucker owed it.
Toya: ...Go to work. You don't have to...
[10:29:32.20 ]
Cut to MS, Cobe on the phone as the family continues to shout in the background.
Cobe: Yeah, I'm right here on Roosevelt and Ashland. Right here.
Toya: ...Cause of favoritism. Ain't no favoritism.
Cobe: Alright, come to the office, it's heated right now.
Toya: A parent see when a person is led a certain way...
Cobe: Okay. Alright.
[10:29:43.14]
Cut to WS exterior of University of Illinois building.
Tio (VO): If the clique that you are in…
Cut to WS of Tio, Cobe, and the family sitting around a small table in an office.
Tio: … I ain't putting you on the spot, but if they came at your brother, would you stop them?
[10:29:50.08]
Kenneth: Yeah.
Tio: You would. Okay. (To Bud) The clique you in, if they came at your brother, would you stop them?
Bud: Of course.
[10:29:57.00]
Tio: And my thing to you, when it come down to the street game, the only choices man is jails, deaths, and institutions. Do you feel you can be in a cell for twenty-three hours a day? A six by nine cell?
[10:30:07.00]
Kenneth: No, no man could be in that place for too- for that long.
Cut to TS of people listening to Tio.
Tio (VO): Huh? Well what'll happen when you're on the streets, though, little brother, you'll run into a situation out there with your brother's associates –
[10:30:15.10]
Tio: - you mad at your momma, you mad at your brother, you not thinking right, you high on some reefer, bam! You shoot some motherfucking body.
Tio gestures as if he has a gun in his hand.
Tio: Right?
Kenneth: I ain't that type of guy.
Tio: No, you ain't that guy, but it happens.
Toya: Your brother not either. Look where he at?
Tio: Hear me, hear me clearly. Hear me clearly. Sixty per cent of the guys in the penitentiary were not them kind of guys.
Tio: They were probably sitting in the same seats like you're sitting in and never thought it would happen to 'em. I bet you.
[10:30:34.10]
Bud: I love my brother to death. He just don't understand like, and, it's not really a problem with him, it's really a problem with like my mother and my grandmother. I just feel like they really do take sides, man.
[10:30:43.10]
Kenneth: I don't got no problems with my brother. I love my momma to death, but she just don't listen or try to just, try to relate a little bit. You know what I'm saying? And all the shit that she done while I'm growing up, you ain't always been peaches and cream in your life either.
Toya: I ain't never said I was. But at the same time you don't have to go down that road and be the spoiled peach.
Kenneth: I'm really not. I'm really not. I'm really not.
[10:31:00.10]
Tio: You gonna have issues with your mother. Every damn kid in the United States, black or white, got issues with they parents, man. This ain't nothing new.
Tio: Which one of you brothers can cook?
Toya: Neither one.
Kenneth: I could. I know how to cook, some of anything.
[10:31:10.10]
Tio: You cook your mother a meal one day, man, y'all need to sit down with your mother. You hear me, I know it's kind of tough because you haven't done it, but, you need to sit down with your mother, man. Have a family day –
Kenneth: My momma, I'm her oldest child.
Tio: Right.
Kenneth: SUBTITLE: She don't even know, I know how to get down on a stove.
Tio: See, see.
[10:31:23.20]
Kenneth: You know, that's kind of, that's kind of odd to me. It's not coming to me right. It's just not coming to me right, right now.
Tio: Hahaha. That's right. That's right.
Cobe: Man, you know what I'd love to see though, for real man?
[10:31:31.00]
Tio: Right, right.
Cobe: I'd love to see y'all two embrace each other, man. You and your brother, man. For real.
[10:31:36.20 ]
Tio: I'm a let Cobe handle that one, there.
Cobe: I'd love to see y'all embrace each other, man.
Tio: And your mother. And your momma.
Cobe: And your momma, yeah, man.
Tio: Your mom, that's what's happening, right there, bro. You know, can you handle that, little brother? Huh? I ain't, I ain't gonna force you to do it. You know that. I ain't gonna force your brother. But...
Cobe: Kenneth, you [indistinct] embrace your mom or your brother.
Kenneth: Mmm, not right now.
Tio: Right...
[10:31:56.10]
Cobe (VO): I was sick behind that shit. This your momma, man. I don't care what. You should still always hug your momma and let her know you love her, man.
Cut to WS of brothers on opposite sides of the hallway, using phones.
Cut to WS of brothers and mothers standing in hallway, spaced apart, not talking to each other.
[10:32:13.10]
Cut to nighttime shrine
Cut to WS of ambulance speeding down the street.
Cut to WS of exterior of Mildred's Lounge at night.
Cut to WS of door to Mildred's.
[10:32:26.10]
Cut to MS, track with Cobe as he walks through MIldred's.
Cobe: Hi Alfreda. [indistinct]
Cobe walks over to a lady at a table in the bar and hugs her.
LOWER THIRD: Alfreda WIlliams
Cobe's mother.
Afreda: This is my baby. This is my heart. This is my baby.
Cobe (VO): I know my mama love me. I love my mama. I know she'll do anything for me.
[10:32:38.23]
Cut to TS of Cobe's sister, across the table from his mom.
LOWER THIRD: Mildred Jones
Cobe's Sister
Mildred: Hello.
Cut to insert of Cobe's parents with afros.
Cobe (VO): But when my dad got killed, things really just went down hill. My mother done come up, start using drugs.
[10:32:46.10]
Cut to formal interview with Cobe.
Cobe: After my father died, she couldn't deal with it. And I'm like-
Cut to MS of Cobe in the bar talking to his mother.
Cobe (VO): That shit took a toll on me.
Cobe: I'm fin a drink me a cocktail today.
[10:32:54.10]
Mildred: No you ain't.
Cobe: I ain't drinking no cocktail.
SUBTITLE: Alfreda: Get momma one.
Cobe: I don't want you to keep drinking.
[10:32:59.10]
Cut to TS of Alfreda holding up her glass.
Cut to formal interview with Cobe.
Cobe: That's why, God as my witness, I'm 38 years old right now. And I said, I wasn't gonna never use drugs. I wasn't gonna never drink.
[10:33:10.10]
Cut to MS of woman pouring a drink at the bar.
Cobe (VO): I really started following in my daddy's footsteps, though. Selling drugs, hustling, going back and forth to jail.
Cut to MS of Cobe's grandmother coming into bar.
Cobe: What up Granny?
Mildred: I know they thought I was coming in through the back...
LOWER THIRD: Mildred Williams
Cobe's grandmother
owner of the lounge
Cobe: Uh huh.
Cobe (VO): Coming up I was more close to my grandparent. And my grandmother from day one, stayed on me.
Cobe: Look at granny.
[10:33:27.10]
Mildred: Happy birthday to me!
Mildred (VO): I called him Carty, but his name Ricardo.
[10:33:35.10]
Cut to formal interview with Mildred.
Mildred: I love all my grandkids. But Carty was one I guess I did do more for and took under my wing.
[10:33:44.10]
Cut to TS and zoom out from Mildred grabbing a cocktail from the bar.
Cobe (VO): When I went to jail, my grandmother bonded me out. I's like, grandma, I knew you was going to get me out, anyway. I'm your baby.
Cut to formal interview with Cobe.
Cobe: She say go back and see. I went back. Grandma didn't do none of that. [laughing]
Cut to Cobe and Mildred dancing in the bar.
Cobe (VO): I probably have broke her heart a lot of times, doing things I shouldn't have been doing.
Cobe (VO): But she always remind me of the good in me.
[10:34:08.18]
Zoom in on Cobe dancing with Mildred and singing along with the song.
Mildred (VO): He saved his life. Cause Carty had been shot at. Probably was shooting at people. So something turned him around.
Cut to formal interview with Mildred.
Mildred: I ain't gonna say it through me and his granddaddy but, he lucky.
[10:34:36.18]
Cut to MS of Cobe hugging Mildred in the bar.
Cobe: Hey, my Granny.
Mildred: Love you.
Cobe: Love you too, Granny.
SUBTITLE: Mildred: Y’all didn't know we could handle that!
Cut to WS of the bar.
[10:34:52.00]
Cut to MS of Ameena and Ameena's grandma sitting on chair.
Ameena: (SINGING) I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end.
LOWER THIRD: LILLIAN "MADEA" SMITH
Ameena's grandmother
Ameena: (singing) I've seen the lonely times when I could not find a friend.
SUBTITLE: Madea: Now don't sing.
Ameena: (singing) But I always thought that I'd see you, baby.
SUBTITLE: Madea: You will make me want to leave, because I will get up and walk away.
[10:35:07.18]
Ameena (VO): Ms. Madea's always shot from both hips.
Ameena: I was with Madea from birth to nine, and from nine to about fifteen, I went and I did stay with, um, my biological mother.
Madea: Now we're talking about my family, because I'm the mother of her biological mother. We need to honor and respect our children. We can't just throw 'em out there and throw 'em away.
[10:35:34.18]
Insert of Ameena's mother with young Ameena.
Ameena (VO): Because of the lifestyle that my mother lived, I went through a real rough journey.
Insert of pictures of young Ameena.
Ameena (VO): Being abused, physically, emotionally, sexually, from the age of nine to the age of fifteen. So I just went back to Madea.
[10:35:57.18]
Cut to Ameena and Madea looking through mail
Ameena (VO): My grandmother lived in a apartment with four of us, and it was roach-infested. You know, once I started learning the game, my goal was to get Madea up out of there.
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: But Madea was the type of woman that, that type of money? Don't bring that shit in my house.
[10:36:15.06]
Insert of young Ameena and Madea smiling.
Ameena (VO): But I got caught up. I got caught up in that one more thousand, one more run.
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: One more big hit.
[10:36:25.06]
Cut to TS of man doing Islamic chant.
Cut to WS of an Islamic service.
LOWER THIRD: Al-Haqqani Mosque
[10:36:36.06]
Cut to WS of Ameena leaning up against a wall at the service.
Ameena (VO): I was introduced to Islam through my father.
Cut to TS shot of Ameena chanting, in a row with several other women.
Ameena (VO): It was always something inside of me that was constantly saying that I have to do better.
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: I wasn't afraid, I just knew that I had to come on with it.
[10:37:00.06]
Cut to TS of Sheikh Rasheed praying.
Ameena (VO): Allah sent me confirmation through someone else.
LOWER THIRD: Sheikh Rasheed
Ameena's husband
Cut to TS of Ameena praying.
Sheikh Rasheed (VO): She knew what she wanted. That's what lead her here.
Cut to formal interview with Sheikh Rasheed.
Sheikh Rasheed: And so, we believe that, you know, it was a heavenly marriage.
[10:37:14.06]
Cut to WS of Sheikh Rasheed reading at the service.
Sheikh Rasheed: Allah, let your blessings and your peace be upon your servant.
Cut to MS of Ameena with her daughter.
Ameena (VO): My family keeps me very, very grounded.
LOWER THIRD: Rashida
9 year old daughter
Cut to Ameena as she blows kiss to Rahsida, who smiles back.
Cut to Ameena walking up to other children.
Ameena: He took your phone? Noah took your phone?
Pan to young guy sitting on the ground with two other children, crying.
LOWER THIRD: Malcolm Malik
12 year old son
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: At the end of the day, I have to come in, cook dinner, help with homework. Tear some ass out the frame if I have to.
[10:37:38.06]
Cut to two kids shaking hands.
Ameena: Show him some Salaam love.
Ameena: Don't do it no more.
Guy: Alright.
Ameena: I'll bust your jaw.
Ameena (VO): My family is really my real job.
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
[10:37:49.06]
Ameena: Out there in the community is a piece of cake for me.
Cut to MS of Ameena going up to Sheikh Rasheed and kissing him on the cheek.
Ameena (VO): My husband worries about me more than anyone else.
Cut to formal interview with Sheikh Rasheed.
Sheikh Rasheed: There are times that I can't be there physically with her, but I know that she is fearless and she will lay it on the line, and she'll go up against a lion.
Cut to WS of congregation standing in circle outside.
Sheikh Rasheed (VO): She will just stand up for anyone, because of experiences she's had growing up, where someone didn't stand up for her.
Cut to TS of Ameena, and then a MS of a memorial.
[10:38:14.06]
Ameena (VO): Our mosque is holding a prayer vigil for a kid shot sitting in front of his home, just listening to the radio. Corey definitely wasn't in a gang and he was loved by his block.
Cut to shots of memorial, young people looking at the memorial.
Cut to TS of memorial, liquor bottles and stuffed animals lined up in front. A man chants in Arabic and the congregation answers.
Ameena (VO): When rage sets in, when ego sets in, when that Hennessy sets in.
Cut to TS of Ameena. Cut to WS of a group of guys standing on the sidewalk.
[10:38:31.06]
Cut to MS of Ameena talking to young guy at the memorial.
Ameena: Okay, I'm going to walk down here where Corey's friends are. You stay right here.
Cut to WS of group of young men on sidewalk.
Ameena (VO): These young guys say, let's go get who we think did it.
[10:38:39.06]
Cut to WS of lady looking out of her window.
Cut to WS of groups of teens standing around Ameena.
Ameena (VO): I'm hearing twenty different things why that brother got changed.
Cut to MS of teens listening.
Ameena: And all of it is stupid. All of it is stupid.
Cut to MS of Ameena in the center of a circle of teens.
Ameena: Two o'clock in the afternoon when these babies coming home from school, y'all shooting. For real?
Cut to TS of young guy reacting.
[10:38:53.06]
Cut to Ameena talking to large group of teens.
Ameena: This is unacceptable for me to be holding this boy's -- this young man's obituary. [She holds it up.] Schools, churches, your mama's house, your cars, those are safe zones. When I was about your age, I was making some real stupid decisions. And some stupid calls, that was costing me my life. Blood on my hands, and my head. Stop.
[10:39:19.06]
Ameena grabs a young guy and pulls him close to her.
Ameena: Who does this baby belong to? Who does this little shorty belong to? He just hanging around y'all?
Guy: That's my little cousin.
Ameena: He just hanging, this little mo, this little mo, he just hanging around y'all, right? So he see everything that you all do, right? So if this brother right here catch a case and do a hundred years, whose fault is it? It's his fault?
[10:39:42.06]
Guy: Uh uh. It's our fault. It's our fault.
Ameena: Teach him righteous.
Ameena: Y'all got it?
Kids: Yeah.
Ameena: Y'all got it?
Kids: Yeah.
[10:39:54.06]
Ameena: [To tall guy] You got it?
Tall guy: Yeah.
Ameena: Alright. I'm looking to you.
[10:40:00.06]
Cut to TS of guy in crowd.
Cut to MS, Ameena hands out her card to the kids.
Ameena: Here's my number. Give me a call, alright?
Guy: Alright.
Cut to MS, the guys walking away.
Ameena: Y'all are running it.
Guy: Alright.
[10:40:09.06]
Cut to MS, rusted block club sign, 80th and Green.
Cut to TS, note that says R.I.P. Lil Corey.
Cut to MS, woman shaking her head at the memorial.
Cut to WS, woman alone at the memorial.
[10:40:27.06]
Cut to WS, memorial with candles and bears through chain link fence.
LOWER THIRD: Tyrone Williams, 19 Percy Day, 17
Cut to TS of a double picture on a shirt.
Young Man (VO): This is my, my little brother, on the left side. And my little cousin on the right side.
Pan up to show young man in baseball cap holding the shirt.
Young Man: Tyrone Williams and Percy Day, Jr.
[10:40:39.24]
Cut to WS of memorial with bears from the side.
Cut to WS of memorials from across the street.
LOWER THIRD: Shane Burnett, 19 Sharon Anderson, 46
Cut to MS of man standing at one of the memorials.
Cut to TS of poster with notes at the memorial.
[10:40:58.06]
Cut to TS of man shaking his head at the memorial.
Cut to TS of postcard. Wind blows it up to reveal the note, "To Shane, we will miss you," on the other side.
Cut to TS of guy writing a note on a memorial.
Cut to TS on note asking him to say hi to the guy's dead mother.
Cut to WS of Memorials by street pole.
LOWER THIRD: Michael Vilella, 21 Luis Garcia, 17
[10:41:27.26]
Cut to WS of pole memorial through chain link fence.
Crying Girl (VO): Luis was killed trying to sign Michael's altar.
Cut to MS of Memorial with candles lit.
Cut to TS of picture in memorial.
Cut to MS of crying girl.
Crying Girl: I held him to his last breath. I didn't want to let him go.
[10:41:39.06]
Cut to memorial wall of names. A man and child walk past.
LOWER THIRD: Altgeld Gardens
Cut to CU of wall, featuring scrawl, “I am next.”
[10:41:56.06]
Cut to WS of memorial by a tree with balloons.
LOWER THIRD: Bernard Hatcher, 20
Cut to TS of notes and bandana on the memorial. Bandana says trust none.
Male (VO): I've lost at least twenty guys. It's no answer to it, you know. You one of your guys got killed, fuck it. I'm gonna kill that nigger and make his family suffer.
Cut to TS of bear and bottles at base of tree.
Male (VO): I don't want no shrines, beer bottles, drinks. Niggers crying, smoking weed. Pictures and shit. T-shirts. I don't want none of that shit.
[10:42:28.06]
Cut to TS of guy with white shirt.
Guy with White Shirt: I don't want to die looking stupid as hell. No. Fuck that.
Cut to TS of writing on memorial.
Cut to TS of writing. "Big Wink." "Lil' Bro."
Fade to black.
TITLESCREEN: Fall
[10:42:42.06]
Fade in on two kids walking to school.
Male Radio DJ (VO) - "107.5 WGCI. Tony Sko and the morning riot and that's right, it is the first day of school for all Chicago Public School students."
Cut to MS of three students walking.
Cut to WS of ~ 20 students walking on the sidewalk
2nd Radio DJ "That's right and we want you to hit us up, be safe out there".
Cut to TS of "Warning Safe School Zone" sign
MS of cops and security officers.
[10:42:59.21]
Female News Anchor: Youth violence in Chicago has gotten world attention.
Cut to archival news reports on Fenger High School.
Second Female News Anchor (VO): Sixteen-year-old honor student Derrion Albert was attacked as he walked home from school.
Anderson Cooper: A senseless killing this time was caught on videotape has put Chicago’s deadly epidemic in the spotlight.
[10:43:12 .06]
Male News Anchor: Now there's debate on a national level which all basically started with that viral video that came out, from the cell phone ...
Cut to news footage of recording Derrion Albert's killing.
Male News Anchor: ...of the clash between the two gangs outside Fenger High School that killed Derrion Albert right in the middle.
[10:43:23.06]
Cut to TS of Ceasefire worker watching Derrion Albert footage on a computer screen.
Cut to MS of Bob Jackson at a computer.
LOWER THIRD: Bob Jackson
Director
Ceasefire Roseland Office
Cut to TS of screen with video of Derrion Albert's beating. Cut to shots of Ceasefire workers in a meeting, watching the footage.
Bob Jackson: See this young man here? You see him taking this board from this young man.
[10:43:33.18]
Cut to MS of three ceasefire workers.
Bob Jackson: And this is the young man that you're actually going to see hit the boy in the back of the head. Look for the guy in the red coat. Watch him.
Cut to reaction shot of woman in black.
Cut to MS of three workers watching the video.
Black and Red Shirt: I see him.
[10:43:42.06]
Cut to WS footage of the fight
Bob Jackson (VO): He took it, and watch him.
Guy in Video (VO): Damn.
Cut to two shot of Ceasefire workers.
Black and Red Shirt: That was a two-by-four wasn't it?
Bob Jackson: Yeah.
[10:43:47.06]
Cut to footage of fight.
Black and Red Shirt (VO): They still doin- oh wow.
Cut to Two shot of the Ceasefire workers.
Bob Jackson: Man.
Cut to MS of interrupters in meeting room.
MS of woman in black.
Cut to two shot of the Ceasefire workers.
Bob Jackson (VO): Ameena is gonna assist us with the family, because we got to get them to the site where they're gonna do the memorial.
Cut to WS of all five people at the Ceasefire meeting.
Bob Jackson: Cause this is what the family wants, okay?
[10:44:04.21]
Cut to TS of Ameena in front seat of a car.
Ameena: Which way does that go? It goes that way? The arrow?
Driver: Yeah. Yeah.
Ameena: Okay, go that way.
Ameena (VO): I seen the video.
Cut to WS of Ameena walking toward Albert house.
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: And I said – Aw man, I hope his mother does not see this.
Cut to WS, crowd outside of Derrion's mother's house.
Man (VO): Come on down. Come on down.
[10:44:19.23]
Cut to MS of woman hugging Anjanette, Derrion's mother.
LOWER THIRD: Anjanette Albert
Mother of Derrion Albert
[10:44:25.23]
Cut to MS Ameena talking to young girl.
Ameena: It's a lot of people here for your brother. You know that, right?
LOWER THIRD: Rhaea
Derrion's sister.
Ameena: It's a lot of people, okay?
Cut to MS of a man in orange hat talking to Anjanette.
Orange Hat: Stay in that circle. We got security on both sides of you.
Ameena (VO): Anjanette needed help getting him a funeral.
Cut to crowd outside high school.
LOWER THIRD : Derrion Albert Vigil
Ameena (VO): She needed help trying to make sense of what just happened to her son.
Cut to Anjanette walking down street with group.
[10:44:46.23]
Ameena: I got resources for Anjanette to put Derrion in a mausoleum, next to her mother.
Cut to MS of Ammena walking briskly as a crowd walks on the sidewalk in the background
[10:44:52.23]
Cut to shot of Ameena shouting at crowd as they pass.
Ameena: Only the family. Nobody else.
Anjanette (VO): Ameena’s very very important to us.
[10:44:58.07]
Cut to interview with Anjanette
Anjanette: Everything I went through she was right there with me. (Tearfully shakes her head.)
Man (VO): We're praying for this family.
Cut to shots of crowded vigil. TS of young people holding up notepad with messages. WS of crowd of people.
Man (VO): We're praying that God will heal their hurts. And I'm praying for all of you, my brothers and my sisters.
[10:45:12.04]
Cut to MS of man in black hat at podium.
Man in Black Hat: This is a problem in our community. It's a problem in our city. It's a problem in our nation.
People can be heard saying "yes" and "right" as he speaks.
Cut to shot of Anjanette seen through cameras. Then a WS of the crowd and a tilt up to the news satellites overhead.
Tio (VO): Once the media has gone back to wherever they came from, we have to step up to the plate and make something happen over there.
Cut to MS of Ameena listening.
[10:45:23.06]
Man in Black Hat: …year after year, who are not doing anything about this problem.
Cut to shot of stuffed animal on the ground. Tilt up to "Love RiP" written in chalk on wall above.
Man in Black Hat (VO): I'm talking about the police department. I'm talking about all those who are doing nothing…
Tio (VO): The person that was videotaping the goddamn beating was saying...
[10:45:34.04]
Cut to WS of CeaseFire meeting in a large room. Tio is talking to the interrupters. 5 reaction shots throughout Tio's talk.
Tio: ...Zoom in, zoom in, put that nigger to sleep.
Cut to other Interrupters reactions.
[10:45:37.13]
Tio: That's what you heard the people saying in the background. So that goes to show you the mindset. Cause I know Ameena, she's spending a lot of time with the family still, they trying to fix his face, so they can have a open casket. I heard some interviews from the young brothers. They say they don't know why the hell they fighting. They just hate each other. So somebody tell me what they fighting for, then.
Cut to MS of Interrupter listening.
[10:45:54.13]
Brown Shirt Interrupter: We grew up gang banging. It don't make a difference what we fighting for. You ain't with me, you against me, and that's just how it's always been, Tio.
Cut to MS of young man in blue standing. Cut to young interrupter seated at table. Cut to MS of four interrupters listening.
Tio: The guys from Altgeld Gardens, they were attending Carver School. Which was turned into a military school. A lot of guys didn't want to go to a military school. So they transferred the guys to Fenger.
[10:46:12.13]
Cut to TS of two interrupters.
Tio (VO): So now you got these guys coming from a whole other neighborhood.
Cut to MS of Black Hoodie Interrupter talking.
Black Hoodie Interrupter: When they laid there and closed down Carver High School, and started letting these guys get to school any kind of way they can, riding on the bus, walking, or what have you, you left it to them that they had to defend themselves.
[10:46:27.13]
Cut to MS of 8 interrupters nodding in response.
Black Hoodie Interrupter: And the Ville is fighting Altgeld Gardens, they've been doing that since the sixties, man.
Tio: We up against history.
Cut to TS over the shoulder of blue shirt interrupter in the corner of the room.
Blue Shirt: Yeah, and we gotta respect history, but, it shouldn't play a big factor in this table.
Cut to 2-shot of interrupters listening.
Blue Shirt: Man, we got over five hundred years of prison time at this table.
Cut to TS of interrupters laughing.
[10:46:43.13]
Blue Shirt: That's a lot of fucking wisdom.
MS of Cobe listening while seated at the table next to others.
Cut to MS of Blue Shirt.
Blue Shirt: How the hell are we gonna let these kids school us, that we were schooling them?
Cut to pan shot over Tio’s shoulder.
Tio: We’re want to try and work this conflict out. Because right now they just had another big fight up at Fenger while we talking…
MCU of Eddie Bocanegra
Tio: The beat goes on.
Fade out
Fade up
[10:47:00.13]
Establishing shot of neighborhood at night. Policemen walk by.
LOWER THIRD: Little Village neighborhood.
Eddie with young man in grey, gold, and black jacket jacket.
[10:47:06:10]
LOWER THIRD: Eddie Bocanegra
Violence interrupter
Eddie: That's that brother right there, man? They put him in the, that's the body?
Cut to WS of van down the street with back open.
Eddie (VO): Damn, that's fucked up, man.
Cut to MS of police car driving.
Eddie (VO): This young brother that we just finished doing some mediating with, his close friend just got killed. The possibility of retaliation at that moment was very, very likely.
[10:47:21.13]
Cut to Eddie with young man in gray and gold jacket.
Grey and Gold Jacket: That cop was just looking at me all crazy, too, like she has a fucking problem.
Cut to cars driving.
Cut to MS of Eddie with black-haired woman.
Black-haired woman: They just right now shot on Thirtieth and Kedville, again.
[10:47:29.13]
Eddie: Thirtieth and Kedville?
Black-haired woman: Right now.
Eddie: Get the fuck out of here. Again right now?
Black-haired woman: Right now. A couple of minutes ago.
[10:47:34.00]
Cut to thru windshield shot, passing a police car and cops harassing some guys.
Cut to Eddie driving in car at night.
Eddie: Police are going to be harassing a lot of guys over here whether they’re affiliated or not. I think the police should enforce the laws but I think it’s the way they go about it. There’s a reason why people in the community don’t really like talking to the police.
[10:47:46.13]
Cut to Eddie in car.
Eddie: They see other guys: they see their nephews, they see their brothers and their sisters, you know, being harassed.
[10:47:51.13]
Cut to driving past police frisking suspect.
Eddie (VO): Just because there's a high presence of police right now, that doesn't mean nothing for these guys, man.
Cut to TS of Virgin de Guadalupe Candle.
Cut to WS of Eddie standing by a memorial.
Eddie (VO): Within thirty hours there was about seven shootings.
Tio (VO): Eddie always presents himself as a preppy, school-going, collegiate type of guy.
Cut to MS of Eddie speaking.
Cut to MCU of Eddie
Eddie: I said, look man there ain't nothing shakin' man, they ain't tryin' to hear it and... (trails off)
[10:48:09.13]
Cut to formal interview with Tio.
Tio: When you talk to him about his street past, oh no, we don’t want to go there man. We don't want to go there (laughs). But at the same time, he came from the lifestyle with the Latino gangs.
Cut to Eddie on the street.
Tio (VO): And he wasn't no low-level member. He was right there with the leader. They called him Bandit, because he would end up taking something from you.
Cut to tracking shot Eddie walking down the street with another Interrupter.
[10:48:24.13]
Eddie (VO): My nickname. Haha.
Cut to zoom in on old photo of Eddie.
Cut to formal interview with Eddie.
LOWER THIRD: Eddie Bocanegra
Served 14 years for murder
Eddie: Well, I was pretty good at stealing cars. I was, give me a screw driver and less than a minute, and I'm gone with your car.
[10:48:32.14]
Cut to WS of police camera on a pole.
Eddie (VO): Well, this is the block in Little Village that I actually grew up in.
Cut to WS of high school field through chain link fence.
Eddie (VO): I have a lot of memories here.
[10:48:38.13]
Cut to MS of Eddie outside of field.
Eddie: I, I, right hand to God, I had about half of this parking lot full of stolen cars at one time.
[10:48:43.13]
Cut to WS of parking lot.
Eddie (VO): But one day, the city, I guess, found all the stolen cars.
Cut to MS of Eddie at parking lot.
Eddie: So there was about, seven, eight tow trucks, just lined up, taking these cars out.
Cut to shots of people doing hand shakes on stairs, walking around park with kids and dogs.
Eddie (VO): Most of our parents, immigrants from Mexico. Worked two jobs. Grew out in the street, runnin' around.
[10:49:01.13]
Cut to old photo of Eddie’s family.
Eddie (VO): My dad was a hardworking person. He fixed cars.
Cut to formal interview with Eddie.
Eddie: And I would see my dad’s hands, and they’d be full of calluses, you know, and you know, cuts all over his arm, burn marks, you know from the blow torches.
Cut to photo of Eddie in high school.
Eddie (VO): From day one, I told myself, I am never going to be fixing cars. It wasn’t me. I didn’t feel it. It lit up in me, when I saw some things in the neighborhood. And I’d see these guys hanging out, a lot older than I was. They had the nice cars, they had the girls, flashing their colors.
Montage of old photos of the young gang memebers in the neighborhood.
[10:49:36.13]
Cut to formal interview.
Eddie: What it was they had a pride of who they really were, they had an identity and they were proud of that identity.
Cut to picture of young Eddie.
Eddie (VO): Half of my life I was in prison. That’s why I do what I do now. To me it’s a personal thing.
Cut to shots fading, showing Eddie growing older in prison.
[10:49:53.01]
Cut to MS of Eddie and another interrupter walking along side of apartment building.
Cut to WS of Eddie entering the guys bedroom as woman and young girl walk past.
Eddie (VO) How you've been feeling? You've been moving around a little more? Or not, or what?
Guy Who Was Shot: Yes. Before I couldn't even walk.
Cut to TS zooming in on guy’s colostomy bag.
Guy Who was Shot: This is my dressing I got to clean. You know I got to take a dump right here in a bag…
Cut to TS of Eddie’s reaction.
Eddie (VO): How much of an impact are we making? If we stop one shooting tonight, we did good.
Guy Who was Shot: … where the bullet went through?
[10:50:08.13]
Eddie (VO): But how do we stop maybe the same person shooting somebody the next day?
[10:50:12.13]
Pan from Eddie to other Interrupter
Other Interrupter: Has anybody been here to visit?
Guy Who Was Shot: A couple of my friends.
Victim lying on the bed watching t.v.
Eddie: They've been cool, or they've been like, oh man, fuck that.
[10:50:18.13]
TS of Eddie and other interrupter.
SUBTITLE: Guy Who Was Shot: Yeah... they be on some hype shit.
Cut to 2-shot of interrupters listening.
Guy Who Was Shot: You know how it is.
Eddie: Am I really helping? Some people I can’t. Even as much as I want to, they don’t want the help.
Cut to shot of victim on bed.
[10:50:26.13]
Cut to MS of victim’s father talking with Eddie.
SUBTITLE: Father: I tell him that there is no reason to look for revenge. (TRANSLATION)
SUBTITLE: Eddie: That's for sure. To what end? (TRANSLATION)
SUBTITLE: Revenge isn't anything. (TRANSLATION)
Cut to MS of father and Eddie standing in the kitchen.
[10:50:37.13]
Cut to WS of Mayor Richard M. Daley at a press conference with other public officials.
LOWER THIRD: Richard M. Daley
Mayor of Chicago
Daley: The needless and brutal violence that continues to take our children from us is an outrage.
Cut to TS of Eric Holder at podium.
LOWER THIRD: Eric Holder
U.S. Attorney General
Holder: Youth violence is not a Chicago problem.
[10:50:46.13]
Cut to shot of TV cameras lined up.
Holder (VO): It is something that affects communities big and small, and people of all races and all colors. It is an American problem.
Cut to WS of Arne Duncan at podium.
LOWER THIRD: Arne Duncan
Secretary of Education
Former CEO, Chicago Public Schools
Duncan: I promise to work as long as necessary to rid our country of this plague.
[10:50:59.13]
Cut to members of the press making pictures. TS of older male reporter.
Reporter: Secretary Duncan, I've heard you say those things many times. What's different now?
Duncan: What's different that it takes capturing Derrion Albert's death on video to wake the country. We were dealing with children being shot every single day. I never saw a crowd like this, ever.
[10:51:14.13]
Cut to MS of Tio addressing interrupters in conference room.
Tio: All the professionals working in this field, they knew about the hostilities coming out of the Altgeld Gardens projects and the young man around Fenger. So there was no way in the world that should have really occurred, to be real with you.
Cut to MS of interrupters listening.
[10:51:25.20]
Tio: I talked to the mayor's office today. We're gonna bring together the guys that are in the conflict. And they've agreed to meet with us, and we're gonna process with them. We have a five-hour agenda. I think we can get all the brothers we need. Correct me if I'm wrong.
[10:51:37.13]
Cut to MS of Cobe.
Cobe: If they willing to come sit down here and talk with us, you know, people need to talk to them. Come to see what's on they mind, the kids’ mind.
Ameena: Right.
[10:51:44.13]
Cut to shots of police paddy wagon and helicopter at Fenger High School.
LOWER THIRD: Fenger High School
Cut to MS of Cobe standing by a stoop with three teenage guys sitting on it.
LOWER THIRD: The "Ville" Neighborhood.
Cobe: What's up Tay? You just got kicked out of Fenger, man. You want to go back to Fenger?
Cut to TS of Tay, sitting on stoop.
Tay: Yeah, you know I do.
Cobe: So how you feel about them people come from Altgeld Gardens out there?
Tay: I used to get into it with them a lot though, but...
Dreds (VO): That's what it is though, man.
Dreds (on Cam): Either fighting or shooting. That’s how got to solve ya’ll prob- these problems nowadays, cause if you don’t do it, they gonna try and do it to you.
Tay: If you don’t go hard, it’s your life.
Cut to Police paddy wagon driving away.
[10:52:17.13]
Cut to WS of suburb on the far side of a cornfield.
Cut to WS of Cheerleading team practice.
Cut to MS of Cobe with wife and daughter in the stands at the field.
Cobe (VO): Me and my wife was looking for a house. I didn't want the kids to grow up and really experience the things I've experienced all my life.
Cut to MS of chearleading performance.
Cobe (VO): We way out here, man. Way out yonder, man.
Cut to MS of Cobe and family clapping.
Cut to WS of cheerleading performance on track.
Cut to formal inrterview with Andrea Williams.
LOWER THIRD: Andrea Williams
Cobe's wife
Trauma Nurse
Andrea: Instead of gun violence, we probably have to worry about rabbits and deer, and I'm okay with that.
[10:52:49.13]
Cut to formal interview with Cobe.
Cobe: Man, my wife came from the streets. She used to be around rough riders, people who lived the same lifestyle I lived.
Cut to formal interview with Andrea.
Andrea: I ended up getting pregnant at about sixteen, and, and did a 360. So.
Cut to MS of Andrea, Cobe, and daughter in stands.
Cobe (VO): I met my wife in 2002. And she already had three kids.
Cut to pan from Andrea to kids.
Andrea (VO): It wasn't love at first sight. Probably not even love at second sight.
Cut to formal interview with Andrea.
Andrea: He's very nerdy. Very, very nerdy person. [she shakes her head].
[10:53:15.13]
Cut to formal interview with Cobe.
Cobe: Man, my wife a mess. But, like most wives. No, no, but I love my wife.
Cut to WS of football game.
Cobe (VO): That's short. He at the thirty. Ahhh!
Cut to MS of family clapping.
Andrea (VO): Cobe as a dad, he's really good.
Cut to MS of Quinn in football helmet.
LOWER THIRD: Quinn
Cobe's stepson
Cut to MS of Latrell in football uniform.
[10:53:29.13]
LOWER THIRD: Latrell
Cobe's stepson
Andrea (VO): He's there for every football game.
Cut to MS of Cobe pointing at the field and talking to daughter.
Andrea (VO): My kids really enjoy him, especially my daughter.
LOWER THIRD: Qu-vonnay
Cobe’s stepdaughter
Cut to formal interview with Andrea.
Andrea: That's, that's her everything. Her Cobe.
[10:53:40.13]
Cut to WS exterior of Cobe's house in the suburbs.
Cut to MS of Cobe playing video games with stepsons and a friend.
Cobe: Oooo.
Stepson: Cobe.
Cobe: Ooo, hoo. Jake. Oh.
LOWER THIRD: LATRELL DRE
Cobe’s son Cobe’s stepson
They all laugh. Cobe slaps hands with one guy.
Guy in orange hoodie: That's the trick play. That's called A -1.
Cobe. A-1.
Cut to CU of Latrell playing video game.
Cobe: What really made me start thinking more about doing the right thing, I started thinking about my son.
Cut to Insert photo of Latrell on a merry-go-round pony…prison snap shot of Cobe.
Cobe (VO): I remember I was in jail, and they brought me out with handcuffs 'til the judge called us, and....
[10:53:59.03]
Insert polaroids of Cobe from jail.
Cobe (VO): My son ran up to me and hugged and kissed me and grabbed me and started crying.
Cut to formal interview with Cobe.
Cobe: So instantly I got so emotional and like, I think tears was coming, you know what I'm saying. And, like dad, dad, I love you. I love you.
Prison snapshot of Cobe
Cobe (VO): As I'm going back to the back, my son just like…
Cut to formal interview with Cobe.
Cobe: …broke down in front of everybody, just crying. I want my daddy. I want my daddy.
Insert photo of Cobe with little Latrell in a graduation outfit.
Cobe (VO): I started thinking more about him. Wanted to change my life because I wanted to be there for him.
[10:54:30.13]
Cut to MS of city street from car window. Pan in to Ameena with Caprysha in car.
Caprysha: It was so much that they had to do.
Ameena: To get you released?
Caprysha: Yeah, to get me released.
Ameena (VO): Caprysha had to stay in the jail...
LOWER THIRD: Caprysha Anderson.
Ameena (VO): for almost a month. I was the first call on her way home. And, that experience was just such an eye-opener for her. She said she didn't want to do it again.
Caprysha: My mom had just went to court. They talking about taking her last four kids.
Ameena (VO): She’s been in over fifteen different homes. She’s raised herself and her sisters and brothers.
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: While her mom was out doing whatever her mom was doing.
[10:55:04.21]
Cut to interview with Caprysha in a park.
Caprysha: The money that I get, I'll go buy my drugs and start selling drugs out on the block, just to make money for my sisters and brothers, for them to have what they wanted.
Cut to Ameena and Caprysha in car.
Caprysha (VO): I blame myself for my sisters and them being in DCFS. I blame myself for a lot of stuff that I know that it wasn't my fault.
Ameena: Right, What is your goal?
Caprysha: To get my high school diploma, go to college to be a pediatrician, and, like, take care of, like, and then with like, my free time, take care of my, go get my sisters and them.
[10:55:30.13]
Ameena (VO): And her saying what her goals and dreams are, who am I to say, you can't do that. Look at your record. Look at Ameena's record.
Cut to MS of Ameena and Caprysha on carousel.
Cut to MS of Ameena's friend on carousel.
Cut to TS of Caprysha smiling.
Cut to WS tilt of Carousel.
Ameena (VO): Being a violence interrupter, nothing surprises me. But being a mother, and seeing this eighteen-year-old never riding on a carousel, kind of blew my mind.
Cut to MS of Ameena and Caprysha. Caprysha laughs. (slow motion)
Cut to CU of Ameena laughing (in slow motion)
Cut to MS of Caprysha looking up.
Ameena (VO): It's true that it's only so much that I can do. And that's just one Caprysha.
Cut to formal interview with Ameena.
Ameena: But it's, it's hundreds of thousands of Capryshas out there.
[10:56:07.13]
Cut to MS of Caprysha picking out nail polish at salon.
Cut to WS of salon.
Ameena (VO): Pick out another color.
Caprysha: I like green.
Ameena (VO): I know, but, but.
Cut to TS of Caprysha's nails being filed by salon worker.
Salon Worker: Let her be, let her be. If she got green, leave it green.
Cut to MS of Ameena and Caprysha in salon.
SUBTITLE: Woman (VO): What color green you got?
Ameena: She got like that lizard green.
Cut to TS of Caprysha rinsing fingers.
Ameena: Now, this is a very expensive manicure. If I see you out there biting your nails, we gonna be on the ground, boxing.
[10:56:25.20]
Cut to TS of Caprysha smiling.
Ameena (VO): You better be worried.
Cut to TS of Caprysha having hand massaged by salon worker.
Salon worker: How does it feel? Nice, right?
Cut to Caprysha.
Caprysha: Yeah.
Ameena: Don't slap him. Don't hit him. Enjoy it.
Salon Worker: So where are you from?
Ameena: Yeah.
Caprysha: Rockford.
Salon Worker: And what made you move all the way out here?
Cut to MS of salon worker with Caprysha.
Caprysha: Cause I was getting in trouble. I used to fight every day in school.
[10:56:43.13]
Salon Worker: Where does that get you?
Caprysha: Huh?
Salon Worker: Where does that get you, fighting?
Caprysha: Nowhere.
Salon Worker: Finally figured that out, huh?
Caprysha: Yeah.
Salon Worker: Only for one brief second you become the winner.
Caprysha: Mmhmm.
Salon Worker: But then, the only thing you win is your own pride. But, but, where's that gonna take you anywhere in life?
Caprysha: I don't go out and start trouble with everybody.
Salon Worker: Right.
Ameena: When she bring it, she bring it hard.
SUBTITLE: Salon worker: How did you find her?
Ameena: We were doing a conflict mediation and...
Caprysha: Just happened to be the only girl standing outside.
[10:57:16.13]
Ameena: And when you came to the house, what you thought?
Caprysha: It was different. Cause like, you actually was talking to me.
Cut to TS of Caprysha. Then her nails then back to Caprysha.
Ameena: You know, you deserve to be happy. You know, you nineteen. You deserve, like you said, to be having girly stuff done.
[10:57:33.13]
Ameena looks down at Caprysha's hand.
Ameena: That's a whole different hand, man.
Caprysha looks at her hand. The camera zooms in.
Caprysha: Hmm.
Ameena: Why do you feel like you want to cry but you don't want to.
Caprysha: I don't know.
Ameena: It's okay. I cry. Big girls cry. Angels make prayer in your tears, when you, when you crying and you grateful. When you're crying and you're asking God to help you.
Camera zooms all the way to Caprysha's face. She is not crying.
Ameena: I'm really so glad I met you, man.
Ameena: You know?
Cut to TS of green nails.
[10:58:14.13]
Cut to exterior of Namaste School. Camera tilt down.
Eddie (VO): You guys remember...
Cut to TS of young girl in school, painting.
Eddie (VO): …where we left off, last week? We're working on our what?
Student (VO): Backgrounds.
Eddie (VO): Backgrounds, right? It's about using your brush.
Cut to MS of Eddie at front of class, gesturing with his hand as though holding a brush.
Eddie: Criss crosses. C's.
LOWER THIRD:
EDDIE BOCANEGRA
Violence Interrupter
Eddie: (VO): Last year, I had a hard time going to schools. I was like hey look; I work for a violence prevention program. A lot of them didn’t want to acknowledge that there was issues in their schools.
[10:58:39.09]
Brown Haired Girl (VO): I used a pencil to sketch it out.
Cut to MS of brown-haired girl with Eddie.
Eddie: Oh.
Brown Haired Girl: And I shaded the background.
Eddie: You shaded it. Okay.
Eddie (VO): Namaste contacted CeaseFire. There were actually focusing after school about violence and how they could help the community and so forth.
Cut to TS of painting. Cut to show his face while painting.
Eddie (VO): And I was like, what do you think about the idea of like maybe, introducing art for them to express themselves about violence.
Cut to MS of Eddie pointing to paintings on the wall.
[10:58:56.13]
Eddie: Now this one right here, I kind of really like this one.
Eddie (VO): And when I was in prison, painting was my form of dealing with my issues, and my problems and really discovering myself.
Cut to TS of Eddie pointing to picture of angel with head on its knees.
Eddie: You got this angel, he’s in Hell, and behind him is like some demons, taunting him…
Cut to reaction shots of kids.
Eddie (VO): Art is kind of a way to hook the kids, you know about what’s going in their community and what they’re thinking about.
[10:59:13.13]
Cut to MS, reaction of students.
Eddie: What's the one thing in the neighborhood that you wish, people could focus on more, to help out?
[10:59:18.13]
Cut to TS of young boy in white shirt.
White Shirt Boy: Spray painting.
Eddie: Spray painting. What about you?
Cut to MS of girl with long brown hair.
Long brown hair: The shootings in the neighborhood.
Eddie: The shootings?
The girl nods. Tight Reaction shot of Eddie.
Long brown hair: Because my mom's scared that there's gonna be a shooting going on me, while I'm outside.
Shot of two boys listening.
Girl with brown bangs (VO): I would like, want them to help with the shooting, because that really bothers me.
Cut to TS of Eddie.
Eddie: Why does it bother you?
Girl with brown bangs: Because there was this one time where our neighbors got into a fight and... I don't know what else happened, but somebody started shooting. [She begins to cry]. And... I really [indistinct]
[11:00:03.13]
Cut to TS of Eddie talking to students.
Eddie: And what you’re doing right here, being part of this program, that's a great thing, because it shows that you cared, and that you want to do something about it.
Cut to TS of girl, sniffling.
Cut to TS of Eddie.
WS of class.
Eddie (VO): And I just wish that these kids, if they ever go through that, it doesn't affect them the same way it affected me. My coping mechanism is keep going, keep going, keep going. Keep working.
[11:00:27.13]
Cut to formal interview with Eddie.
Eddie: I think I stay busy just to stay out of bullshit, and, try to forget about some of the things that I've done.
Insert photo of Eddie as a teenager.
Eddie (VO): When I was eighteen a very close friend of mine was paralyzed.
Insert photos of Eddie as a teenager with friends.
Eddie (VO): I'm feeling this anger, I'm feeling this rage. I'm feeling like, they shot one of our guys, we're going back.
[11:00:53.13]
Insert of news article about Eddie's victim.
Cut to MS of street through windshield, Pan over to Eddie.
Eddie (VO): When I pass through that block it seems so different. And I try to kind of rewind. And no matter how much I try to remember it, it just don't come out.
Cut to WS of car, parked.
Eddie (VO) It's hard for me to say the victim's name.
Cut to TS of Eddie in car.
Eddie (VO): And, and even the crime. I guess, I really try to detach myself, like, like not putting a face. But in reality that face is there. The face is still there.
[11:01:30.13]
Cut to WS of children at a stand and a blue ice cream truck on a sunny day. Cut to MS of Eddie standing on street.
Eddie: And I, I had to be careful as well, here, cause I knew these guys were packing. And, I'd say by the fire hydrant over there.
Cut to shot of fire hydrant.
Eddie (VO): This dude just kind of came out the cars.
Cut to MS of Eddie.
Eddie: Shot him pretty much point blank. It was a whole bunch of his friends, too, that were behind the cars. And I was trying to shoot them as well. But, it was more like on the defensive side by that time. It was more like, just to make sure that they didn't shoot at me.
[11:02:09.13]
Cut to WS of woman walking a dog on sidewalk.
Eddie (VO): It's funny because this block itself has claimed a lot of lives. This one particular block right here.
Cut to MS of Eddie, looking over his shoulder at the door to the house behind him.
Eddie: CeaseFire.
Cut to TS of door. It has a CeaseFire sticker on it.
Cut to MS of Eddie on the sidewalk.
RAP SONG BEGINS
Cut to WS of police car driving down street.
LOWER THIRD: Altgeld Gardens
[11:02:31.13]
Lyrics:
It’s foolish shooting it must stop/ Getting cruel children going to school and gotta duck shots/ no more bliss ignore this we must not/ like Latosha Hawlin she was murdered on the bus stop/ two gun shots and she just dropped/ daily living, I speak the grief of the streets/ so they maybe listen, and pay attention/ lead us through this mess we infested with death / and that leaves us depressed / like when Derrion Albert was beaten to his death / had his momma too upset/ crying speaking to the press, man/ it’s too much/ we began to lose touch/ Jesse Jackson took heavy action and rode the school bus
Cut to WS of school bus outside of apartment buildings.
LOWER THIRD: Day of Ceasefire's Fenger Peace Summit
Cut to WS of students standing on Street.
Cut to MS of students boarding bus.
Cut to LS of bus pulling away.
Cut to WS of city street. Pan across street over to bus.
LOWER THIRD: "The Ville" neighborhood.
Cut to MS of students boarding bus.
Cut to WS of bus pulling away.
Cut to WS of bus driving down highway.
Cut to WS of skyscrapers, tracking with car.
Cut to WS of students getting off of bus.
Cut to MS of students listening inside of Fenger.
Cut to shot two students listening.
[11:03:05.13]
TIO (VO): Do you all think we can establish some type of coexistence or peace up in Fenger high school if we all work together?
Cut to WS of Tio at the podium.
Cut to MS of Ameena.
Cut to MS of female student with pony tail holding microphone.
Female Student: Fenger can be a better place if the Gardens won't come up to there, tryin' to-
(She is interrupted by noise from other students.)
Cuts to TS of girl turning to look back. Zooms out and pans left.
Tio (VO) Listen, hear her out. Hear, give everybody respect. Hear her out, hear her out.
Cut to girl in Jean Jacket speaking.
Jeans Jacket: I live in Altgeld Gardens. And, all this, it's the Gardens, and they animals. It's both ways.
Cut to MS of Gary Slutkin watching, off to the side.
[11:03:29.00]
Yellow Shirt Speaker (VO) You young men and women have to place...
Cut to MS of man in yellow shirt speaking at the podium.
Yellow Shirt speaker: A value and a vision on your life.
Cut to MS reactions of students, mostly sleeping or disengaged.
Yellow Shirt Speaker (VO): Look at yourself fifteen years down the road. You will be a full adult.
[11:03:38.16]
Cut to WS of female speaker with brown hair holding microphone.
Female Speaker: I cannot believe that I'm looking at what has happened to the young people here. You don't have to fight anybody.
Cut to Ws of students sitting at tables.
Cut to MS of students responding in small groups with Ameena. One guy wears a gray hoodie.
Gray Hoodie Guy (VO): They always giving these speeches and stuff.
Gray Hoodie Guy on camera: Everybody don't think the same way. Everybody don't think the same way.
[11:03:51.13]
Cut to OTS of Ameena speaking to group.
Ameena: This is not about me being an old lady and telling somebody what they should and should not do. It's about you all's life. And you all need to be heard all the way through ends of sentences. So I'm a throw some scenarios at you, and I want you all to just answer honestly. One of your friends was just beat up at a party over the weekend. You see a couple of kids that your friend identifies as the dude that stole on him. What do you think would happen next?
Girl with braids: I feel that we gonna fight. Cause it wasn't, it wasn't no problem when they jumped on my friend over the weekend, so if we see them walking, we gonna fight.
[11:04:26.13]
Girl with purple purse: It ain't like y'all put it. It's not that easy. You might walk away and somebody might put, hit you in your head with a bat or something.
Ameena: Who like to fight?
Girl with purple purse: I don't like to fight –
Other girls join in unison: but I'll fight if I have to.
Girl's Voice: That's how it is, but.
Other girl's voice: I'll fight. I'll fight anybody.
Guy with blue hat: Everybody fighting.
Ameena: Why you so angry? Why, why you love to fight?
Guy in gray hoodie: Cause it's just the way I was brought up. I just always had to fight.
Ameena: Always had to fight.
Guy in Gray hoodie: Basically.
[11:04:54.05]
Cut to reaction shots of students.
Ameena: It's hot out there. When I grew up I used to wake up wanting to bite somebody. Just bite somebody. And I understand a hell-raiser liking to fight. But walking away from a fight ain't always meaning that you punk.
Guy in Gray Hoodie: SUBTITLE: It's meaning that you the bigger and the better person -
Guy in Gray Hoodie: - but not to them. When they look at it they gonna think you a punk and little bitch and all that. But.
Cut to MS reaction shots.
Ameena: As I got older and weighed out my consequences and saw everybody that I was raised with that loved to fight was in the penitentiary again. Does that mean you a punk still?
[11:05:30.01]
Cut to formal interview with Tio.
Tio: It’s a myth that most of the violence is gang-related because a lot of the violence is interpersonal conflict. Guys get into it for the most pettiest reasons out here.
Cut to MS of guy from Fenger.
Cut to MS of two girls from Fenger, leaning on hands.
Tio (VO): So it’s all about respect and disrespect. Not being accepted in the overall society, a lot of people feel ostracized, so what they do? They try to dominate their surroundings.
[11:05:48.01]
Cut to tight shots of students' faces, listening.
Ameena (VO): I didn't eat this morning. I'm wearing my niece's clothes. I just was violated by my mom's boyfriend. I go to school and here comes someone that bumps into me and don't say excuse me.
Cut to footage of Derrion Albert beating.
Ameena (VO): You hit zero to rage within thirty seconds. And you act out.
[11:06:20.01]
Eddie (VO): Some of these kids, man, they don't care about tomorrow. Fuck tomorrow. That's what they gonna tell you.
Cut to MS of students getting back onto buses.
Eddie (VO): I'm trying to survive today, right now. I'm trying to live right now.
Cut to WS of students boarding buses.
Eddie (VO): I'm trying to make sure I don't get shot. I'm trying to make sure that my boy next to me doesn't get shot. And if he does, guess what? I'm gonna go over there and shoot them too.
Cut to MS of girl sticking her arm out of the window of a bus. She sticks up her middle finger.
Cut to a CU of the face of a stuffed animal.
Cut to wider shot of the same animal, surrounded by other stuffed animals and covered in snow.
[11:06:51 .01]
LOWER THIRD: Derrion Albert, 16
Cut to Wider shot of the pile of snow-covered stuffed animals that are now seen lying in front of a concreted wall with 'LOVE RiP' written on it. Cars are driving by it.
Subtitle: WINTER
Exterior of UIC building
Cut to a screen with a presentation projected on it that relates to the discussion on what a Violence Interrupter does. In a boardroom, Dr. Slutkin, Tio and Norman Kerr are explaining and discussing the CeaseFire program.
Slutkin: So this is what violence interrupters do. Focused like a laser on reducing shootings and killings.
Cut to WS of Dr. Slutkin speaking in a boardroom.
LOWER THIRD: Delegation from South Africa
Slutkin: And then the deeper part of the whole program is changing norms.
Cut to a MS of a woman listening to the presentation.
Cut to power point projection
Cut to TS of Tio.
Slutkin: In in Chicago, the interrupters have interrupted about fourteen hundred such events. We average about a 40-45% drop in shootings and killings in the areas where we are put in.
[11:07:25.01]
Cut to a delegation member asking a question in the boardroom.
Delegation member: Have you had incidents where the police feel that you should have given them information and you didn't, and that you were on the side of the offenders?
Cut to Tio.
Cut back to OTS from Slutkin’s pov of delegation member.
Slutkin: If we were to do that, we would not be effective.
A man wearing a CeaseFire hat begins speaking and it cuts to a MS of him.
LOWER THIRD: Norman L. Kerr
CeaseFire staff
Norman: We are trying to keep Ceasefire neutral, uh politically as far as the relationship with law enforcement and the community.
[11:07:48.01]
Cut to a delegation member who is speaking.
Cut CU of Dr. Slutkin.
Cut to CU of Tio.
Delegation member: I mean I I'm confused when you say neutral. How are you seen as being a neutral force in that area? Because there's right and there's wrong.
Cut CU of Norman.
Kerr: It's not about right and wrong on one side. We don't want law enforcement thinking that we are coddling these criminals and we're hiding information so they can continue doing negative behavior. And we don't want the community thinking that we're stool pigeons reporting information that they give us to law enforcement.
[11:08:14.01]
Slutkin: You know, the right and wrong of these conflicts is all point of view. Whether you're going to take it back one day or five years or two hundred years. I mean everyone has got a grievance and so we just have to say that no matter what, the additional violence isn't going to be helpful. So we're not in the, the um, the good and bad game. We're not in that drama.
[11:08:38.01]
Cut to formal interview with Tio.
Tio: It's just hard, because these guys are still uh, cut from the code of the streets.
Cut to various shots of Violence Interrupters at one of their typical meetings.
Tio (VO): I've seen the faces of the Interrupters when we hear that a seven-year-old girl got shot. Interrupters say, "Man, Somethin' needs to be done." But it's hard for these brothers to make that quantum leap into turnin' somebody in.
Cut to formal interview with Tio.
Tio: The police support CeaseFire, but when they first started down here I got criticized. You know, from everybody, police, people down here on CeaseFire staff. You know, when you are hiring all these, you know, go for tough guys. But how the hell you really gonna stop the violence?
[11:09:12.18]
Cut to TS of an Interrupter listening as another man begins to speak.
China Joe (VO): We was mediating that situation, a guy recently was released from prison, and he thought the man was...
Cut to MS of China Joe
China Joe: ...talkin' about him. And got out the car and punched the man and and his brother...
[11:09:22.18]
LOWER THIRD: James "China Joe" Lofton
Violence Interrupter
Tio (VO): China Joe was known as the Gladiator. All vice lords had to fight China Joe to become a vice lord. How do you think that makes a young guy feel?
Cut to young Interrupter listening. Then to other Interrupters listening to China Joe's story.
Tio (VO): Man China Joe just told me to stand down.
China Joe (VO): ...all good, he shook his hand. Hugged him...
Cut to MS of China Joe
China Joe: ...and we left it at that.
Cut to Eddie greeting a man on the street. Eddie continues speaking to him.
Eddie B: Hey. Good, good. What's up?
Eddie B (VO): Interrupters, you know our intentions are noble, and they're good. But sometimes we don't always go at it the right way.
[11:09:44.01]
Cut to Eddie B speaking to a guy outside of a building at dusk.
Eddie B (VO): You're not in the street anymore. You can't take the law into your own hand, you can't.
Cut to formal interview with Eddie B
Eddie B: ...as an Interrupter, that has been one of our greatest challenges.
[11:09:52.18]
Cut to formal interview with Tio
Tio: When Violence Interrupters have to use the threat of violence to actually mediate a conflict, this is where the rubber meets the road at. Because in reality, you cannot mediate conflicts without confrontation.
[11:10:04.18]
WS of snowy street. A car pulls up and parks on the side of the road.
Phone: First saved voice message..
Cobe (VO): He left me a voicemail.
Cut to Cobe in the car holding his phone and playing the voicemail.
The voicemail plays through speaker phone: What up there.
SUBTITLES: I got some important news to talk to you about.
Voicemail continues: I need you to call me back, but I might need...
Cut to MS of Cobe sitting in the driver seat, continuing to listen to the message
Cobe (VO): I got a call from a guy I met in jail. He said the guy sent police in his house, he was doing illegal things.
Voicemail: SUBTITLES: Emergency, emergency. Call me back.
Cobe (VO): Said the police kicked his door in, locked up his brother, they threw handcuffs on his mother.
Cut to WS of a maroon car drivingdown the street.
Cobe (VO): And he talking about he knew who...
Cut to Cobe and Hot Rod walking up to Flamo's home, approach Flamo's door and knock.
Cobe (VO): ...had sent the police in his house. He was looking for 'em.
[11:10:31.18]
Cut to MS of the neighbor looking through branches from his porch.
Cut to Cobe and Hot Rod standing on Flamo's porch. You can hear Flamo speaking as he nears the front door before answering it. Flamo opens the door and is talking on his cell phone. The men begin to have a discussion on Flamo’s front porch.
Flamo: Fuck that pussy-ass nigger.
Flamo throws his phone into his snow-covered yard.
Cobe: What's up, what's up, what's up though?
Cut to closeup of phone in snow
Cobe (VO): My man Flamo, he'll make you laugh. But if you fuck with him, you better bring it on.
Cut to MS of Hot Rod, Flamo, and Cobe standing on Flamo's front porch
LOWER THIRD: "Flamo"
LOWER THIRD: Rodney “Hot Rod” Phillips
Violence Interrupter
Flamo: These motherfuckers came here man. Had my motherfuckin' mama handcuffed. My little brother handcuffed and shit man. Took my little brother, one that got shot. In a fuckin' wheelchair man. Took him to jail.
Cobe: But still though man, you got to try to leave that shit alone.
Flamo: Man I ain't leavin' shit alone until I get these motherfuckers. You already know how I get down.
[11:10:57.18]
Cobe: I mean, but that shit ain't gonna make no...
Flamo: Fuck that. Boy it's gonna make it better for me.
Cobe: I'm sorry to hear about your brother, but still though that don't make shit no right.
Flamo: Oh damn I need my phone.
Flamo walks down the stairs of his porch to retrieve his phone. Camera follows Flamo.
Cobe: That ain't gonna make shit no better though.
Flamo: Fuck making it better.
SUBTITLES: Flamo: I'm walking around with my fucking pistol. Can you grab my phone brother.
Flamo: I can't, you know.
Cobe walks down the porch stairs to retrieve Flamo's phone. Camera follows him and zooms in on Cobe handing Flamo his phone.
Cobe: Man, you crazy man be out here like this.
Flamo: I'm listenin' to you man. It's love, and everything. But I ain't feelin' that, none of this shit. And I respect y'all, you know what I'm sayin, what you doin' and everything. That's cool, but fuck that.
[11:11:23.18]
Flamo: I'm not with CeaseFire. What was y'all at when these motherfuckers came kickin' my door in?
Hot Rod: What I'm sayin' is, we can't erase what already happened, but the whole thing is you gotta look at it like man...
Flamo: You can't erase what happened. You right. And you can't predict what the fuck I'm finna do. Shit.
Cobe: You know we just try to work shit out.
Hot Rod: We try to offer you options and solutions to the problem.
Cobe: Yea.
Flamo: Man. Fuck this shit.
A loud noise is heard off camera.
The camera pans to Flamo who is kicking another door/wall inside of his home.
[11:11:43.09]
Flamo: Fuck a problem. Fuck a solution. These motherfuckers try to take my shit. You ain't just crossed me, you cross my fuck in' mama. For my mama nigger I come in your crib and kill every motherfuckin' body.
Cobe: Two of your brothers gone. If you be gone that ain't gonna do nothin' but hurt your mama.
Flamo: She'll be alright.
Cobe: How many kids you got?
Flamo: I'm claiming four. That's it.
Cobe: Alright I'm just sayin' so if you go to jail who gonna take care of your kids?
Flamo: That's the thing. God takin' care of us now. He gonna take care 'em. Just like when I do what I'm gonna do. He gonna take care of me too.
[11:12:15.03]
Cobe: But you was locked up before for the same shit though.
Flamo: Man I been, I'm 32 years old. I been locked up 15 years of my life. What that mean? What the fuck that mean? That's where I grew up at. God damnit. Ain't no shame. Ain't no secret. Shit. I'm tired of bein' out here any motherfuckin' ways. It's boring as hell, soft-ass niggers out here ain't doin' shit but trickin'.
Cut to MS of Flamo and Hot Rod. Flamo is looking down the street.
Flamo: That ain’t the police is it?. What's that on the corner? I know these punk ass police still want me. Motherfuckers gonna have to kill me.
Cut to shot of car down street.
Cobe: Now that shit crazy man.
[11:12:44.03]
Cut to MS of Flamo standing in his doorway talking with Cobe.
Flamo: How can you help me? Right now. How can you help me?
Cobe: I mean the only thing, like I say, the only thing I can do is try to get to know you more, spend a little time with you and try to work with you man.
Flamo: So that mean you are take me out to dinner then? We can go to lunch right now. And we can sit down, we can talk about this motherfucking problem. That's what you telling me?
Cobe: Yea. Yea.
Flamo: I'm gonna hold you to that God damn shit.
Cobe: Yea we could go out if that's what you wanna do.
Flamo: When? When?
Cobe: We could go out now.
Flamo: Right now?
Cobe: Yea.
Flamo: Let me go put my pistol up.
[11:13:10.03]
Cut to Hot Rod standing at bottom of stairs.
Cobe: Shit I don't know. We'll just see.
Cut to Flamo and Cobe getting into Cobe's car. The three men get into the car and drive away to a restaurant.
Cobe: Hot Rod make sure though man he ain't got shit on him.
Flamo: I'm I'm good. I ain't got nothin'.
Cut to WS driving behind Cobe's car .
Cobe (VO): It's a rough one. I think that's one of the worst ones I had.
Cut to Flamo and Cobe walking through the restaurant parking lot and into the restaurant.
Cobe (VO): He kept coming and going with us. One minute I think I'm reachin' him, he calmed down. And then he blow right back up.
[11:13:32.03]
Cut to WS of a University of Illinois-Chicago building. Pan up the outside of the building.
Cobe (VO): Anytime you got a person who stay there and talk with you, you got a chance of working it out with them.
Cut to Tio speaking at an Interrupters meeting.
Tio: Uh Melvin, these this is the time of the month we go over the conflicts that we turn in once a month.
Cobe (VO): Before the meeting started Tio talked to him for a nice little minute.
Cut to Cobe and other Interrupters sitting at the meeting. Flamo is sitting in the back.
Cobe (VO): Tio was tellin' him just come listen. Just check it out. If you don't like it, you can walk out right away.
Tio: I'm gonna shift the agenda to just bring up a hypothetical problem that's taking place somewhere in our town. Let's say somebody tricked on your brother.
[11:13:59.03]
Tio: And somebody called the police and said that he has some guns in the house. And the police came and locked your brother up. They found two guns and they put your mother in handcuffs. And you know who the guy is that told on your brothers. Now how would we resolve a conflict like that?
Cut to MS of Flamo seen sitting behind Interrupters. Cut to Interrupter #1 who is speaking.
Interrupter #1: If we gonna keep it 100 that's real real hard. When you put mama into somebody else's business, that's that's super duper hard.
Cut to MS of Interrupter #2 who is speaking.
Interrupter #2: We ain't gonna be effective in all interventions.
Tio: Okay.
Cut to other Interrupter shaking his head.
Interrupter #2: There's gonna be some that gonna slip through the cracks.
[11:14:25.07]
Cut to Interrupter #3 who is speaking. Flamo can be seen sitting behind him. Zoom in on Flamo.
Interrupter #3: I let him know that, "Hey, you get messed up, you addin' to the burden. So what you gotta do is you gotta put your little personal pride aside and start dealing with this thing on a realistic, responsible way to start tryin' to figure out a way to get your brother from up out of that drama and ease your mother.
Cut to MS of Interrupter #4
Interrupter #4: You wanna be tough to be a hero, goin an be like the rest of our guys who's locked up.
Tio: I think that's good for now. Got some solid feedback. Leave it alone at that. Allright, so this is what's happening right now. We got a situation over at Michelle Clark High School.
[11:14:54.24]
Tio (VO): I think when you first started meeting with him…
Cut to Tio and Cobe speaking in the hallway after the meeting.
Tio: …he was on 10.
Cobe: Right.
Tio: And now I think he's at like a level 5.
Cobe: Okay.
Tio: The only problem now Cobe, if he was to see this guy tonight, there's gonna be a problem. What's gonna happen now, you gotta babysit him. You and Hot Rod gonna have to take turns.
Cobe: Okay.
Cut to Cobe approaching and greeting Flamo who is standing by the exit of the university building. They speak and then exit the building.
Cobe: I know you tired of waitin'. Let's get out of here man. CeaseFire for life.
Flamo: Man, about time.
Cut to shot of Cobe, Flamo, and Hot Rod walking away in the snow.
Tio (VO): Cobe is one of the best violence Interrupters, but he knows how to walk away. That's very important because if you don't know how to walk away, you can end up getting hurt.
[11:15:21.24]
Cut to WS of the outside of a hospital with ambulance engine running.
Cut to Tio walking through the hospital as he searches for a specific hospital room where Joel Sanchez, a Violence Interrupter who was shot during an intervention, is recovering.
Tio: 8424?
Tio (VO): We've had some close calls. Several Violence Interrupters have been shot at.
Tio walks into Joel’s hospital room.
[11:15:31:19]
Tio: Brother Joel. Certain amount of pain?
Cut to TS of Joel Sanchez laying in a hospital bed
LOWER THIRD: Joel Sanchez
Violence Interrupter
Tio (VO): This is the first time one of our Violence Interrupters ever got shot.
Cut to TS of Tio.
Tio: I came up here to tell you we appreciate you. And uh everything you did to try to mediate that particular conflict.
Cut to Joel.
Tio: I'm just glad you uh, survived. You know?
Joel: Yea.
Cut to TS of Tio.
Tio: You stumbled across this comin' out of your father's house.
Cut to TS of Joel in bed.
Joel: Yea. There was a couple guys down the block arguin' over some money. As I was approaching them, I had like a, a something telling me like it wasn't even the right moment to even interrupt them.
[11:16:03:02]
Tio: [unintelligible]
Joel: I'm just tryin' to, you know, do my job. One of 'em said, "Who are you? You ain't from around here." So I go talk to his other friend. And then um, and that's when he shot me up.
Tio: When you turned your back?
Joel: Yea, when I turned my back.
Tio: So you got shot in the ankle and in the back right?
Cut to TS of Joel's bandaged ankle that has a CeaseFire sticker on it.
Joel: In my ankle and in my lower right back.
Tio: Yea.
Joel: They opened my whole stomach open.
Tio: Yea, that's tough little brother. Um, cause the day you got shot there were like 16 shootings in six hours.
[11:16:26:06]
Tio: Cause I need you to know all the guys came up here Friday. All the brothers were here.
Joel: ...yeah, Zale was telling me.
Tio: Yea, we were here you know. And uh, hmm. [Tio pauses as he tries to keep from crying.]
Tio: It's, it's just kinda tough that's all.
Joel: I understand.
Tio: Right.
[11:16:51:06]
Tio: When I thought about you uh getting shot and your father was there. Cause I have sons, you know, got a son like 24. Got another son that's like 28 years old, believe it or not. So when I thought about it... [Tio coughs and pauses again to hold back his tears.] I gotta collect myself, that's all. Yep. And I'm only human you know. Yep, we be good, we be alright though. You know we just gotta keep on pushin'. Okay?
[11:17:17:06]
Cut to TS of Tio and Joel shaking hands. Pull back to wider shot of the two as Tio exits the room.
Tio: Appreciate you little brother.
Joel: Alright.
Tio: Okay, I'm gonna get on up out of here. And I'll be back Wednesday.
Joel: Alright.
Tio: Alright. Yep. Oh man. Yea.
Cut to MS zoom to closeup of Joel in bed.
Cut to a MS of a funeral home sign: "Leak and Sons, Funeral Home, Founded by God, Co-Founders Rev Andrew R. Leak, Sr. & Mrs. Dottie Leak"
Noise, organ music and commotion can be heard
Pan down to show a crowd of people outside of the funeral home.
Cut to TS of boy with bandage on his face.
Cut to various shots inside of the crowded funeral home. A line has formed as people pass by the casket to view the body. The crowd is full of teenagers and weeping women.
[11:17:43:06]
Ameena (VO): I'm begging you my brothers, I'm begging you my sisters, let God do what God needs to do for Duke.
Cut to TS of baby on mother’s lap.
Cut to MS of Ameena speaking into a microphone.
Ameena: Once we lay this brother down in the ground, we got work to do.
[11:17:58:03]
Ameena (VO): Jesse Smith got shot in a retaliation for another student that got shot. But it wasn't Jesse that did the shooting.
Amena (VO, from funeral speech): The family has to heal and we have work to do.
Spencer Leak (VO): I'm just seeing in the last ten, fifteen years, random violence like I've never seen it before. Last year...
Cut to formal interview of Spencer Leak
LOWER THIRD: Spencer Leak
Director, Leak and Sons Funeral Home
Leak: ...of the 125 homicides where we serviced those families, about 90 percent were young people.
[11:18:25:06]
Cut to MS of teenagers viewing the body.
Cut to MS of teenagers taking picture next to the body.
Leak (VO): These children don't expect to live past thirty. They come to these funerals, and I watch them and they represent, and they put themselves in the place of the person in the casket.
Cut to formal interview with Spencer Leak.
[11:18:37:20]
Leak: These young people are in reality saying this is what I want to happen when, when I'm killed.
Cut to Ameena speaking at the funeral.
Ameena: Affectionately known as Duke...
Ameena (VO): I heard little buzzes in the air that they were coming to shoot the funeral up to get the person that they were intending to get. I called for all hands on deck.
[11:18:57:06]
Ameena: Left behind his loving mother, Lanea Smith.
Cut to MS of the mother of the deceased with a man.
Ameena (VO): The mother got in touch with CeaseFire. I've never met this mother before. She said I need you to be there Ameena.
Cut to TS of mother grieving.
Ameena (VO): I just would want somebody to do that for my son.
Cut to TS of Ameena at microphone.
[11:19:13:06]
Duke’s Girlfriend: A lot of y’all might not know me but -
SUBTITLE: Duke’s Girlfriend: I'm Duke's girlfriend.
Cut to the girlfriend speaking at the funeral.
SUBTITLE: Duke’s Girlfriend: I was his sun and he was my sky.
SUBTITLE: Duke’s Girlfriend: And I remember one thing before he left out...
Cut to mother of the deceased rubbing her eyes.
SUBTITLE: Duke’s Girlfriend: That day I was talking about everything. I'm planning to get a tattoo of Duke and everything.
Duke’s Girlfriend: They woke me out of my sleep and said my baby was gone. That's my baby, that's my heart. Rest in peace baby, I love you.
Cut to TS of the dead man’s hat.
[11:19:45:06]
Ameena hugging the girlfriend. Cut to woman in silver standing and hugging someone sitting.
Cut to a TS of solemn older man.
Ameena: I need everybody from the ages of 13 to 24 to stand up.
Panning MCU of audience.
Audience shouts encouragements for Ameena's forthcoming speech, "Go ahead, go ahead."
MS of young people standing up.
Cut to TS of Ameena speaking.
Ameena: I'm the second oldest daughter to Jeff Fort. To ones that call Malik Chief. And I'm fed up. Because each and every one of you all can be Duke right here.
Cut to MS reaction of audience.
Cut to MS of Duke in the casket.
[11:20:13:06]
Ameena: I'm gonna be real honest with you all, because see we real talkin' up in here, cause Duke is real layin' right in front of us. And it's a reason why this brother is here. I see these red caps. My brothers.
Cut to reacton shots from audience.
[11:20:27:06]
Cut to a MCU young man in collared gray shirt.
Ameena: I know we hurt because we love Duke. But we got a responsibility to bring up our community to be vibrant. Whatever it is that's going on, cease the fire, call a truce.
Cut to TS of a woman holding a baby.
Pan of entire church gathering.
Cut to TS of Duke's mother
Cut to pallbearers carrying out the casket
Leak (VO): I was the chauffeur for Dr. Martin Luther King when SCLC made their first venture into the north by way of Chicago.
[11:20:56:06]
MS of woman in red watching the procession walk by.
Cut to MS of Ameena and Duke's mother hugging
Leak (VO): The black community, we were the nobody's. And the Civil Rights era gave us hope that we could be somebody. How can the president of the United States be a black man?
Cut to door closing with the casket inside.
Cut to formal interview of Spencer Leak
Leak: I never thought I'd see that in my lifetime. But while I'm seeing the president on television and the images of him leading the free world, I'm still burying black kids. It just doesn't make sense to me.
[11:21:23:06]
Cut to MS of Ameena and Duke's mother hugging
Cut to shot of homes at night out a car window while driving
Cut to MS of Cobe driving at night, seen from the back seat
[11:21:31:06]
Cobe: Oh, I'm gonna get stuck in this snow.
Cut to WS of front yard of Flamo's house as Cobe and Hot Rod walk up and calls to Flamo.
Zoom in on Flamo by a second floor window, yells down and then comes outside to join Cobe.
Cobe: Where my man at? Where he at? Where he at? Where Flamo?
Cobe: How you doin' sir?
Flamo: I'm alright. Hold on.
Cobe: Okay.
Flamo joins Cobe outside.
Cut to MS of Flamo coming outside.
Cobe: What's up what's up Flamo? How you feelin' today man? You alright? How things been going for you?
[11:21:50:06]
Cut to OTS from Flamo-O’s pov.
Flamo: Well you know I can't sell drugs right now, so I got to gamble. Man I just lost.
Cobe: You talkin' about the Super Bowl?
Flamo: Yea man. I'm a sore loser.
Cut to MS of Flamo in the back of Cobe's car as Cobe drives.
Cut to TS of Cobe driving and listening to Flamo.
Flamo: I'm ready to get my money back, but you know I ain't come with the game man.
Cut to TS of Flamo.
Cobe: I'm just so happy man you calmed down though man, you know. You been thinkin' in another way, and that's, that's very good man.
Cut to a shot of Cobe from the back seat.
Cut to TS of Flamo.
Flamo: Man. It's hard. I wanna stop doin' what I'm doin', but shit, don't push me.
Cobe: Right.
[11:22:18:06]
Cut to back seat two shot of Cobe and Hot Rod.
Flamo: And you know the good thing? I stopped a little commotion on the block a little while ago.
Cut to TS of Flamo.
Cobe: You stopped something today?
Cut to zoom in on Cobe
Flamo: Yea. As I'm talkin' to him I see…
Cut to CU of Flamo-o.
Flamo: …they want somebody to intervene and stop him and tell him to go his way and he go his way.
Cobe: You intervened and stopped all that from happening?
Flamo: Yea.
[11:22:37:00]
Cobe: So how do you feel about what you did?
Cut to CU of Cobe pan to CU of Flamo
Flamo: Personally at the time I just felt like these motherfuckers were making noise and I'm upstairs watchin T.V. and tryin' to get high.
[11:22:48:06]
Cut to back seat two shot of Cobe and Hot Rod.
Flamo: And they made a big ass scene in front of the crib. So shit, I tell them to move on or I'm gonna get in there, fuck 'em both up.
Cut to TS of Flamo
Cobe: Oh Flamo, nonviolence, nonviolence.
[11:22:58:06]
Cut to WS of Hot Rod exiting Cobe's car.
Cobe: I'm gonna be waiting right here on the side Rodney. Okay?
Cut to WS of street view of jerk chicken restaurant, Jamaican Jerk Villa where Rodney goes to pick up some food.
Cut to MS pan/tilt following Rodney into the restaurant.
[11:23:04:06]
Cobe: Oh! What's that in your hand?
Cut to two shot of Cobe and Flamo in van. Flamo holds a blunt.
Flamo: Blunt man, it's a blunt man.
Cobe: Hey man, but Flamo, man, (indistinct) don't ride like that, you know I don't ride with no blunts and shit in here man.
Flamo: I know man, that's why I ain't tell you, see.
[11:23:14:011]
Cut to CU of Cobe.
Cobe: Well I'm sayin' you should have enough respect for me, don't do that though.
[11:23:17:06]
Cut to CU of Flamo pan to Cobe.
Cobe: Police pull up, everybody in here gonna go to jail.
Flamo: Jail. Let me get rid of the evidence.
Cut to MS of Flamo standing outside of the van smoking.
Cobe: Hell man, that ain't cool at all.
[11:23:23:06]
Cut to CU of the back of Cobe’s head.
Flamo: I wasn't thinking.
Cut to CU of Flamo standing in the van door.
Cobe: You weren't thinking?
Cut to two shot of Flamo entering the van.
Flamo: I'm trying to get into the mode of doin' what's right man.
[11:23:31:06]
Cut to WS of Rodney re-entering Cobe's car with the food.
Flamo (VO): I know I got a little screws missing on the attitude side.
Cut to MS of Cobe driving with Rodney sitting shotgun.
Flamo: I used to want to get into it with the gang bangers and gun slingers.
[11:23:38:21]
Cut to CU of Flamo sitting in back and looking out the window while talking.
Flamo: Like, wasn't none of that worth it. 'Cause out all the stuff I had to do and done back then, I ain't got nothin' to show for. None that I done negative. My friends in jail. My friends, drug addicts or whatever.
Cut to TS of Cobe nodding in agreement.
Flamo: It seemed like you know how life repeat itself as a cycle.
[11:24:01:04]
Cut to CU of Flamo sitting in back and looking out the window while talking.
Flamo: You just be one the persons that tellin' the story. I'm tryin' to be one of the ones tellin' the story. I don't wanna be the one just livin' lifestyle on these streets struggling and you know, gotta keep harmin', doin' wrong and all this other nonsense.
[11:24:18:19]
Cut to tracking shot of street corner and storefronts.
`
Cut to MS of Flamo getting out of the van.
Cobe: Alright man I'm gonna holler at you boy.
Flamo: Alright, CeaseFire brother.
Cobe: CeaseFire.
Cut to WS of Flamo entering his house through the front door.
Cut to WS of the outside of a snow-covered row of homes.
MUSIC FADES
Cut to Exterior WS, Cobe drives up the street and drives into CU of Cobe in car.
[11:24:35.20]
Cobe (VO): Today I brought this young man home from prison. He’d been gone like two or three years for armed robbery. I’ve been knowing him and his family for a long time and the only thing he kept saying he wanna see his little brother and his two sisters.
[11:24:49.11]
Cut to a WS of the outside of a house where Cobe and Mikey's siblings are standing. They scream out in joy and run to the front door. Mikey greets them at the door as the sisters cry.
Mikey: Whatsup C? It's gonna be alright.
[11:25:05.19]
Cut to CU of Mikey inside his home.
LOWER THIRD: "Lil' Mikey" Davis
17 years-old
Mikey: It's been a long time.
Sister: Yes.
Mikey: A lot of changes.
Sister: Mmm hmm.
[11:25:12.05]
Cut to four ws of the two sisters sitting on the floor, Mikey and his brother sit on the ottoman in the living room.
Sister A: Long time.
Sister B: You know, two years and ten months.
Cut to CU of Sister B
Sister B: Before you went to jail, I really like, noticed you as Lil’ Mikey, but now you not Lil’ Mike no more.
[11:25:22.15]
Cut to CU of Mikey.
Mikey: Hated it, but I ain't gotta do that no more.
Cut to two shot of sisters sitting on the floor listening.
Mikey: I missed your graduation.
[11:25:30.05]
Cut to two shot of Mikey and his brother.
Mikey: I ain't gonna miss yours. And I definitely ain't gonna miss yours.
Cut to two shot profile of Mike and his brother.
Mikey: What about that role model paper Momma was tellin' me about?
[11:25:38.05]
CU of “Lil Mikey” tattoo on Mikey’s right forearm.
Mikey's Brother: It's about you and me.
Cut to two shot profile of Mikey and his brother.
Mikey’s Brother: About how I miss you. I hope you get to see one sometimes.
Mikey: Right.
[11:25:46.20]
Cut to WS of family huddled in living room. Cobe stands in doorway.
Mikey: This the old Mikey that you say was your role model right?
Mikey's Brother: Mhmm.
Cut to two shot profile CU of Mikey and his brother.
Mikey: I don't want him to be your role model, because he was a different person than he was at home than he was on the block.
Cut to Cobe listening.
Mikey: Hopefully this Mikey will be your role model.
Mikey's Brother: Uh huh.
[11:26:01.05]
Cobe: Your daddy will be coming home soon, won’t he?
Mikey: 2013
Cobe: 2013… How long yo daddy been gone?
Mikey: 17 years.
Cut to Cobe against white wall
Cobe: Yo daddy tried to call me. I got his voicemail. He was telling me he wanted to talk with me before you get out.
Cut to CU two shot of Mikey and his brother. Mikey strokes his brother’s head lovingly.
Cobe: So, you know, I'm here for you.
[11:26:21.05]
Cut to CU of Cobe.
Mikey: Yep. I'm here for y'all now.
Cut to CU of Sister B.
Cut to CU of Sister A.
[11:26:26.20]
Cut to two shot of Mikey and brother.
Mikey: Too long.
Cobe (VO): It's real tough for people get out of prison man.
[11:26:37.00]
Cut to Cobe in a formal interview
Cobe: And lot of times when you get out of prison when you can't find no job, you get discouraged and like, "Man it's hard out here man. Should I go back to doin' the shit I used to do?"
Cut to Cobe outside with three guys on the block. Camera pans from the three guys to Cobe.
Cobe: He sent me a text message. He got a new phone number?
Three guys respond positively.
[11:26:50.20]
Andrea (VO): When he got out, he tried really hard. Until he found his job.
Cut to TS of guy with moustache in black jacket.
Cobe: Aha! Where your boy at Stephon? (to guys farther down the block)
Guy farther down the block throws his hand up.
Cut to TS of Cobe talking on the phone.
Andrea (VO): Even when they laid him off, he was very active. I’d be like, “Why are you going out there, you’re not getting paid.”
Cobe: That’s good.
Cut to formal interview with Andrea.
[11:27:06.00]
Andrea: It’s like, “Because.” (Andrea laughs) “Eventaully they’ll get some funding. I have to go though. This is what I’m supposed to be doing.” And he stuck with it and he’s back.
Cut to WS of Chicago from southside with Willis Tower and skyline in distance
MUSIC BEGINS
Cut to montage of springtime street scenes.
TITLE CARD: SPRING
Continue montage of springtime street scenes.
[11:28:05.00]
Cut to Eddie B preparing to cross the street to Namaste Charter School. He is holding two paintings, which he is taking to an elementary art class that he has been working with, talking about violence in their neighborhoods.
Eddie B (VO): Today's a big day for, uh, the students at Namaste. Putting up their artwork that we worked on this past couple of months...
Cut to Eddie B walking down the school's hallway and approaching a group of students
Teacher: Yay, he's here.
Eddie B: You're like damn, 'bout time he shows up right?
[11:28:18.15]
Cut to CU of Eddie.
Eddie B: How you been?
Students: Good.
Cut to Eddie OTS of students.
Eddie B: How about by the neighborhood?
Student: A kid got shot. Paralyzed from the waist down.
Cut to CU of Brown Hair Girl.
[11:28:28.03]
Eddie B: Did you know him?
Cut to Adeilene.
Adeilene: Yeah. He lived downstairs from us.
[11:28:31.13]
Cut to Teacher.
Teacher: Really? Oh my gosh.
Cut to Adeilene.
Teacher (OS): If anything like that happens guys, now…
Cut to Teacher.
Teacher: … you know you could get in touch with Eddie.
Cut to Gray Shirt Student.
Eddie B (OS): Especially if you just want to talk, you know.
Cut to wide shot of the class and Eddie gathered in the hall.
Teacher: You guys can tell me these things too you know. Yea?
Students mumbling.
Teacher: No? No? Eddie's a little bit more equipped to deal with it.
[11:28:49.09]
Cut to girl with braces.
Gray Shirt Student: I've got a cousin I'm afraid of.
Cut to Gray Shirt Student
Gray Shirt Student: Cause his mom's in the hospital and he started drinking and smoking. And he wears a lot of bad colors. So, yea I just wanted to talk to you about that.
[11:28:58.18]
Cut to shot of teacher.
Cut to MS of Eddie and the Gray Shirt Student in a classroom, sitting at a table.
Gray Shirt Student: I think he's gonna get shot or like get killed because like of all the bad stuff that happened.
Cut to CU of Eddie listening.
Gray Shirt Student: My cousin, I know he has a gun like in his bedroom. Like um, I don't know, it's like I'm really afraid for him, because because like I don't know, he might like like um, I don't know.
Cut to TS of Gray Shirt Student speaking.
[11:29:19.01]
Cut to two shot of Eddie and Gray Shirt Student.
Eddie B: You know, I mean your cousin prolly right now feels kinda hopeless, feels prolly like he's alone.
Cut to CU of Gray Shirt Student.
Eddie B: Why not do these things, you know.
[11:29:25.14]
Cut to two shot of Eddie and Gray Shirt Student.
Eddie B: Nobody cares if I get locked up. Nobody cares if I get shot.
Cut to CU of Gray Shirt Student.
Gray Shirt Student: I think he still can change. Like how I know, like how you told us about how you were in a gang and stuff, and how you changed.
Cut to Gray Shirt Student OTS of Eddie.
Eddie B: But you know also it takes time. It took time for me. It took a long time for me.
[11:29:43.05]
Cut to CU of Eddie
Eddie B: You tell me like where he's at, I'll go, I’ll go, I’ll go to his house and I'll talk to him.
[11:29:48.14]
Cut to CU of Gray Shirt Student.
Eddie B: I mean, I wish your cousin was here just to listen to to what you're saying, because I'm sure he'd prolly be touched and moved by how you feel about it, and how concerned you are about him.
Cut to CU of Gray Shirt Student’s hands
Cut to CU of Eddie
Eddie B: And them guys would love to have you, you know, in their circle.
Cut to Gray Shirt Student
Eddie B: But when they see you doing right, they see you doing good.
Cut to CU of Eddie
Eddie B: It's like they look at that and they envy that, because they wish they were in your shoes.
Cut to MCU of Gray Shirt Student
Eddie B: And these guys keep messin' with you man, just call me bro, call me.
[11:30:13.22]
Cut to CU of Gray Shirt Student
Eddie B: Alright?
Student: Yea.
Eddie B: Alright cool bro. Alright, man.
Eddie and Gray Shirt Student embrace.
MUSIC BEGINS
[11:30:20.14]
Cut to teacher and students hanging paintings
Teacher: Right here? Wanna move it up?
Adilene (OS): We had the choice to pick a topic that concerned us the most. We picked gang violence.
[11:30:28.24]
Cut to Adilene and students reading statement pan to Eddie.
Adeilene: That is when Eddie came from CeaseFire to tell us about his experience in gangs and how he works to prevent it now...
Eddie B (VO): The words they themselves came up with.
Cut to students hanging paintings.
Cut to Glasses Student reading with Eddie screen left.
Glasses Student: Wounded, dragged down, painful, lonely, shattered, destroyed,
suffering...
Cut to CU of tilt down on painting.
Eddie B (VO): That expressed what they felt about violence.
[11:30:47.14]
Cut to MCU of Glasses Student reading.
Cut to tilt down on painting.
Glasses Student: Revived, repaired, recovering, fixing, curing...
Cut to pan of Students looking at statement.
Eddie B (VO): And about moving forward.
Student: … rejoice, hope, healed.
[11:30:56.22]
Cut to wide shot of students clapping in hall pan to Eddie.
Eddie B: That's really good guys. That's really good.
Cut to pan of paintings mounted on the wall.
Eddie B (VO): What I see through these paintings is they actually have a lot of hope for the future.
MUSIC FADES
[11:31:11.08]
Cut to archival news footage from Fox: First on FOX.
LOWER THIRD: War Zone: Chicago
La Shawn K Ford: The same thing that we've done in Iraq we could do this right here in our own backyard.
Nancy Pender (OS): Politicians say Chicago's a war zone and they want the military to fight back.
[11:31:22.14]
Cut to Nancy Pender on Fox Set.
LOWER THIRD: NANCY PENDER
Nancy Pender: Some lawmakers want Governor Quinn to deploy the National Guard…
Cut to archive footage of police vehicles on night time streets.
Nancy Pender (OS): …to Chicago's most dangerous neighborhoods.
[11:31:27.14]
Cut to WS pan of a school gym where a meeting is being held to discuss the possibility of bringing the National Guard to Chicago. Politicians, Tio and community members speak. The gym is packed with people, including many in the back holding signs to encourage lawmakers to create jobs rather than bring in the National Guard.
Ford: And my conversation with the National Guard was: is it possible for you to come in...
Cut to MS of Rep. Ford speaking
LOWER THIRD: LA SHAWN K. FORD
Chicago State Representative
Ford: ...and assist the Chicago police department.
[11:31:37.14]
Cut to a MS of a man in the crowd speaking
SUBTITLE: Man in crowd: Old man Daley said...
[11:31:39.09]
Cut to MS of crowd listening.
Meeting attendee: ...shoot to kill in back in '68.
Cut to MCU of Meeting Attendee
Meeting Attendee: You endangering the lives of all of us!
Cut to older woman and bald man listening.
Meeting attendee (OS): He comes to the meeting to talk about gangs, guns and drugs...
[11:31:47.24]
Cut to CU of Tio.
Meeting attendee (OS): ...but there's no talk of jobs, contracts and opportunities.
Reaction shot of guy in audience.
Shot of young woman in attendance clapping.
Cut to WS of meeting with man in black fez talking.
Meeting member: We got to defend our own people.
Cut to reaction shot of crowd.
Meeting Member: We gotta solve our own problems.
Eddie (VO): He has CeaseFire and their models to stop the violence...
Cut to formal interview with Eddie
Eddie: ...and in essence, that's just a band-aid to this big issue that's going around us.
[11:32:08.14]
Cut to MS's of meeting
Eddie (VO): Every single day, man, they asking for jobs. They're like, "I'm stuck right now, man. Like, I don't even know what to do. Like I'm feeling the pressures from everywhere, man, I'm pretty much gonna be homeless."
Cut to formal interview with Eddie
Eddie: All these things lead to violence.
[11:32:22.14]
Cut to formal interview with Dr. Slutkin
Lower Third: Gary Slutkin
Executive Director, CeaseFire
Dr. Slutkin: Reducing the violence is not a band-aid, it's actually the essential pathway to a neighborhood being able to develop, for the schools to be able to get better, for the kids to get rid of their stress disorders, for businesses to feel safe enough and well enough to be able to come into these neighborhoods.
[11:32:41.01]
Cut to WS's of meeting with people holding anti-National Guard posters
Tio (VO): We don't have enough resources to go around, so the doc really just wants to change the conversation around violence...
Cut to MS of Tio speaking
Tio: Let me finish, all right? If you can't feed these young guys, they're not going to listen to you. Bottom line.
Cut to bald men in crowd listening.
Cut to WS/slow zoom in to Tio speaking at event.
Tio (VO): Look, the African American community and the Latino community have been beaten down so long with poor schools.
[11:32:56.14]
Cut to CU listening shot at event.
Tio (VO): Lack of jobs, hopelessness, despair.
Cut to reaction shots of crowd
Tio (VO): A lot of people can't stick with peace if they don't have a stick that they can hold on to.
Cut to bald man and black coat man listening.
Cut to MS outside of Harvard House with young boy standing outside.
LOWER THIRD: Youth Transitional Home
[11:33:07.00]
Caprysha (OS): Break the window, that’s on you. Break it. Break it. You going to go to jail.
Cut to interior MS of Caprysha standing at window.
SUBTITLE: Young man outside: You’re going to get fucked up!
Caprysha: I’m not worried. I’m not worried. Ain’t nobody puttin’ no fear in my heart.
LOWER THIRD: Caprysha Anderson
Young man: Step out the building then.
Caprysha: Get the fuck away from my window.
Cut to MCU of Caprysha poking a stick out the window.
Subtitle: Young man: I don’t give a fuck who interviewing you bitch, come step outside.
Caprysha: You ain’t got no life.
Young man: Come outside then.
Caprysha lowers the blinds.
[11:33:29.01]
Cut to zoom in of Young Man outside of window
Young Man: She’s fuckin’ for real.
Cut to Caprysha in hallway.
Caprysha: This is an everyday, this is what they do.
Cut to shot of two guys outside, through the window.
Young man: I’m going to fuck you up!
Young man’s friend has arrived, there are now two people outside the window
Cut to stick stuck in the blinds.
Young man’s friend: She wanna be one of us, a man.
Cut to CU of Caprysha in the hallway.
Caprysha: This is what they do, everyday, all day and me being at this site and being the only female, it’s not working. It’s not working.
[11:33:45.15]
Cut to CU of Caprysha sitting outside talking to Ameena on speaker phone
LOWER THIRD: Ameena Matthews
(on phone)
Caprysha: Okay this what happened at the site.
Cut to CU of cell phone.
Caprysha: He called me a bitch, and I spit on him. And he came to my window and spit on me.
Ameena: They didn't put their hands on you did they?
Cut to CU of Caprysha.
Caprysha: They they they wanna fight me. They they tryin' to fight me when I come back to the site. But I think I'mma just go...
Ameena: I'll call the house right now.
[11:34:01.19]
Cut to MS of Caprysha on picnic table.
SUBTITLE: Devon: Miss Ameena.
Ameena: Yes sir.
SUBTITLE: Devon: I'm not going to touch her.
Ameena: You promise me?
Cut to CU of Caprysha listening to phone.
SUBTITLE: Devon: Just know that...
SUBTITLE: Devon: if she continues to go about this the wrong way...
SUBTITLE: Devon: shit is not gonna look better, shit is gonna get ugly.
[11:34:13.01]
Caprysha: Well let me go ahead and call my little people from the Greens and you know, we could go ahead and do this, because I'm not worried.
Ameena: Caprysha shut up.
Cut to CU of phone.
Caprysha: He not finna scare me.
[11:34:21.01]
Cut to MS of Caprysha.
Caprysha: And you know, I'm finna hang up, 'cause I'm gonna hang up this phone.
Cut to CU of Caprysha talking into phone.
Caprysha: I'm finna hang up.
Ameena: He's not gonna be good until I see you. I'm gonna come out there.
[11:34:27.22]
Cut to CU of Ameena holding Caprysha's hand. Ameena has come to visit and talk to Caprysha in person.
Caprysha: I'm not, I'm not, you know I'm actually gonna fight them without no problem.
Ameena: But why?
Cut to Ameena and Caprysha sitting on park bench.
Ameena: Why you gonna risk bustin', gettin' cut all of that, scratched and all of that. Why? You too pretty for that.
[11:34:41.13]
Cut to CU of Caprysha.
Ameena: My baby. You gotta be tired. You gotta be tired of that fightin'.
Cut to Ameena OTS on Caprysha.
Caprysha: You you they, you they 18 and 19, I ain't.
Ameena: But you can't spit on nobody.
[11:34:53.17]
Cut to Caprysha OTS on Ameena.
Cut to CU of Caprysha, zoom out to two shot with Ameena.
Ameena: That can start a war.
Caprysha: That's why I be tellin'...
Ameena: Did you know that?
Caprysha: That's why I gonna be tellin' people I know you.
Ameena: But can't be spittin' on nobody though. So what, knowin' me or not. Them knowin that you know me, that don't, it's your actions. You understand what I'm sayin? For real mommy, do you for real?
Cut to CU of Caprysha.
Ameena (VO): Caprysha has been through hell and back.
MUSIC BEGINS
[11:35:18.17]
Cut to Caprysha OTS on Ameena.
Ameena (VO): It’s tough. Trying to process emotions about not having a mom and dad around.
Cut to two shot of Ameena comforting Caprysha.
[11:35:27.06]
Cut to insert of young Ameena.
Ameena (VO): I have a vision in my head of my dad on this...
Dissolve to archival footage of Jeff Fort, fade back to insert teenage Ameena
Ameena (VO): ...white horse riding through 79th street, coming back for me.
Insert photo of Ameena out at a bar dressed up
Ameena (VO): Me gettin' shot in the game was God tellin' me, you got to make your own choices. My family knew exactly...
[11:35:50.00]
Cut to formal interview with Ameena
Ameena: ... who did it, and I got a phone call from my dad while I was in the hospital, tellin' me how sorry he was, he apologized. It's gonna be some answers for it. And why?
[11:36:02.17]
Ameena: Why dad? Leave that boy alone.
Insert photo of Ameena out at a bar dressed up
Ameena (VO): That was the last encounter that I had with the game. And as I look back, that was my first mediation.
[11:36:18.17]
Cut to a WS following Cobe's car down the street.
Cobe (OS): How's that thing been doing with you, job searchin', everything else?
Mikey (OS): It's been hard. I ain't found no job yet.
[11:36:30.17]
Cut to interior of Cobe’s car. Two shot of the back of Cobe and Mikey.
Mikey: But I ain't gonna give up.
Cobe (VO): I been workin' with little Mikey for a while.
Cut to MS of Mikey in passenger seat
LOWER THIRD: "Lil' Mikey" Davis
Cobe (VO): Even while he was in prison, he kept stressin' he wanted to apologize to them people he robbed at the barber shop.
Cut to two shot from back seat of car.
SUBTITLE: Mikey: It was a war thing. We did it to get more guns.
Cut to CU of Cobe driving.
Cobe: We don't know how this might turn out. We goin' to talk to them.
[11:36:47.00]
Cut to CU of Mikey
Mikey: If they accept it or not, it's still like…
Cut to CU of Cobe driving.
Mikey (OS): I know I made a mistake.
Cut to CU of Mikey.
Mikey: I'm askin' for y'all forgiveness.
[11:36:55.08]
Cut to two shot of Cobe and Mikey from back seat.
Cobe: You kinda nervous going here?
Mikey: I think I'm gonna start feelin' it when I get in the shop.
Cut to CU of Mikey’s hand gripping his knee.
[11:37:03.17]
Cut to shot of the barbershop's awning: Faithfulness, Barber & Beauty Salon. This is the scene of Mikey’s crime, and he has returned to apologize for his actions.
Mikey (VO): How you all doing? I understand that…
Cut to interior, CU of Mikey in the store
Mikey: ... on August 21, 2007, that me and two other fellas came in here and stuck the place up.
[11:37:14.01]
Cut to WS pan of the barber shop.
Mikey (OS): I know I'm deeply, I'm deeply sorry.
Cut to man in yellow striped shirt listening.
Mikey (OS): I know I made a mistake. I was fifteen.
[11:37:20.01]
Cut to two shot, Woman in Purple hides her eyes. Pan back to Mikey.
Mikey (OS): And I was followin' the crowd, but now I'm older. I'm more mature than I was. And I wanted to let y'all know that I was sorry for what I did on my behalf. I don't know how these two other brothers feel about themselves. But I know I made a complete 360 my, doin' my uh, almost three years of being incarcerated.
[11:37:35.17]
Pan back to Woman in Purple now crying.
Woman in Purple: Well, with me, my my daughter was in here and my baby. And you just don't know the impact that you put on my life. Holdin' us with guns. I'm nervous right now even meetin' you. And I thank God that you have changed your life, but you just don't know what that have did to me and my kids. I deal with this every day.
[11:38:01.18]
Pan back to Mikey.
Woman in Purple: Every day of my life. Every day. You came in here, and you asked for a haircut. You left back out, you came back in.
Pan back to Woman in Purple
Woman in Purple: And you did this to my kids. And Jeremy held my baby with a gun up to his head. And then felt on my daughter with a gun.
[11:38:21.18]
Woman In Purple: And you told my co-worker Rhonda that you were goin' to kill her, because she was callin' the police.
Cut to CU of Mikey, pan to Woman in Purple.
Woman In Purple: My life was in your hands. I didn't know if you was gonna kill me. My daughter kept sayin, mama we gonna die.
Cut to TS of Cobe listening.
Cut to TS of Woman in Purple:
Woman in Purple: And I hold my babies and when you want to tell your kids, when you want to protect your kids and you can't at that moment.
[11:38:46.18]
Cut to ECU of Mikey
Woman In Purple: Y'all put up seven people in the little bathroom. We didn't even know what was gonna happen to us.
Cut to bald man listening pan over to a man in a Tapout shirt.
Woman in Purple: And right now to this day he never talk about that robbery. That was three years ago, and he just made 13.
Cut to CU of young boy.
Woman in Purple (OS): He ain't never said nothin'. I don't know what's on his mind, but I just prayin' to ask God don't let him, hold that in.
[11:39:05.18]
Cut to three shot of Woman in Purple, Man in black and red White Sox hat and young boy.
Woman in Purple: But I'm just glad that you are a changed man.
Cut to CU of man in grey sweater.
Woman in Purple: You look better. But you know what?
[11:39:10.18]
Two shot of Woman in Purple and man in white sox hat. Woman stands up, pan to Woman in Purple hugging Mikey.
Woman in Purple: I'm I'm okay, I'm a better person now. And I hope that you know, you be a better man. That's all I'm saying.
Cut to CU of the Woman in Purple grabbing Mikey’s hands.
Woman in Purple: And I hope that you are sincere.
Cut to CU of Woman in Purple with Cobe in background. Pan to Mikey.
Woman in Purple: And that this man right here. I mean he helpin' you and he makin' you a better man. You could've been dead and gone, but God spared your life.
[11:39:26.23]
Cut to MS of man speaking.
Man: This the father right here? I would like to see him hug him.
Cut to Man in White Sox hat standing up and hugging Mikey.
Man: Cause you don't owe him nothin', but you teachin' him. And imagine what he thinkin' about.
Cut to CU of man in gray sweater.
Man: So it take a lot of gut to walk back on the surfaces that you did dirt on.
Cut to CU of Mikey with Cobe standing behind him.
Man: So many cats we shake hands with and they're the same guys that broke in our house we just don't know it.
Cut to CU of man in gray sweater.
Man: Same ones raped our sisters, our mothers, our daughters.
[11:39:52.00]
Cut to CU of Mikey with Cobe standing behind him.
Man (OS): And we know these young guys today at his age, they don't come back.
[11:39:56.10]
Cut to CU of man in gray sweater. Mikey is reflected in mirror behind him.
Man: The fact that today you released somethin' in somebody and in yourself, you got to run with that.
Cut to CU of Mikey.
Man: Alright?
Mikey: Yes sir.
Cut to Cobe and Mikey in the car from backseat.
Mikey: It was hard. Real hard.
Cut to CU of Mikey.
Mikey: Like to just relive what she went through just in her, I mean in my eyes. But she went through it.
[11:40:17.12]
Cut to CU of Cobe behind wheel.
Cut to CU of Mikey.
Cobe: Yea. When you first step in, you know, did you remember them?
Mikey: Mm mm. (negative)
Cobe (OS): You didn't remember them?
Mikey: Not at all.
Cut to CU of Cobe behind wheel.
[11:40:29.08]
Cut to a daytime Chicago city street.
Cut to a pickup bed with watermelons as a woman shucks corn.
Cut to WS of a business, Bud's Flowers
[11:40:41.08]
Cut to a MS of a woman walking up from behind the counter with a bouquet of flowers. She sets them on the counter and Eddie B is now also in the frame.
Florist: That'll be 8.25.
Eddie B: Alright.
Cut to CU of money placed on the counter.
Eddie B (VO): Today,16 years ago...
Cut to CU of Eddie examining flowers.
Eddie: These are nice.
Cut to CU of Eddie sitting in the driver's seat of a car.
Eddie B: ...I took someone's life pretty much. Man so...
[11:40:54.08]
Cut to Eddie B approaching three people on a sidewalk. He meets with them to talk about their slain son and pay homage to him.
Eddie B: Hello. Hi. I'm Eddie.
Eddie B (VO): ...you know on this date in honor of the victim in my case, I try to do as many good deeds as I can. I try to reach out to especially strangers.
Cut to a CU of a Mother’s shirt with a picture of her murdered son.
SUBTITLE: Mother: Look, there he is. Six years and I still wear the picture. (TRANSLATION)
[11:41:09.18]
Cut to CU of Mother
Cut to the mother handing Eddie B the flowers in a pail, Eddie B places them on a hook in a tree
Eddie B (VO): I've thought of, hopefully one day, going to my victim's family.
Cut to CU of mustached man watching.
Eddie B (VO): And really just expressing to them how deeply sorry I am.
Cut to Mother kissing a makeshift mural hanging from a tree.
Eddie B (VO): And whether or not they accept my apology.
Cut to CU of pictures on mural.
Eddie B (VO): Which I don't think they will, I really just want to do this…
Cut to CU of Eddie.
Eddie B (VO): …It's just that right now. I don't think it's still right.
[11:41:36.17]
Cut to CU of Eddie B driving
Eddie B (VO): The last stop of today, we're going to the cemetery to visit the family of Miguel, the kid who was shot and killed a few weeks ago.
Cut to a WS of Eddie approaching a group of people (the family) who are seated around Miguel's grave. Eddie walks up and greets them.
Eddie B: Hello. How are you doing? Doin' alright?
Eddie B (VO): I spoke to Vanessa, his sister, about some of the issues that are going in her home right now.
Eddie: Hi, Eddie.
[11:41:58.17]
Cut to CU of boy looking at flowers at the grave.
LOWER THIRD: Miguel "Angel" Villalba, 15
Eddie B (OS): Now I never got to meet him, you know, to be honest.
Cut to CU of Eddie.
Eddie B: I know he was a good kid.
[11:42:04.22]
Cut to WS of Eddie and the family standing around the grave. Eddie walks to his car.
Eddie B: I actually brought uh um, flowers too that I wanted to drop off, so...
Cut to insert of cross on grave.
Cut to father looking reflective.
[11:42:15.11]
Cut to WS of Eddie walking up to family and gives Vanessa a white rose. She places it on the grave.
Eddie B: You mind putting this on there for me.
Eddie B (VO): Miguel, he got shot in the head. Vanessa was actually there when this happened. He pretty much died in her arms.
Lower Third: Vanessa Villalba
Miguel’s sister
Camera zooms in on the flower.
Eddie B (VO): I think that Vanessa does feel that what happened to her brother was her fault.
[11:42:37.00]
Cut to CU of Vanessa.
Eddie B (VO): But she can’t blame herself because somebody else was ignorant, had a gun, and shot her brother.
Cut to two shot of Eddie and Vanessa.
[11:42:45.22]
Cut to CU of young girl in pink clinging to her mom.
SUBTITLE: Eddie B: He also liked art? (TRANSLATION)
SUBTITLE: Miguel’s mother: Yes, he liked it a lot and was always drawing and saying to me - (TRANSLATION)
Cut to CU of Miguel’s Mother.
SUBTITLE: Miguel’s mother: "Can I paint a wall in our house?" I said, "Miguel, my angel, that's not allowed." (TRANSLATION)
[11:42:56.22]
Cut to WS of Eddie and family standing around the grave.
SUBTITLE: Eddie B: And do you come here almost every week? (TRANSLATION)
SUBTITLE: Miguel’s mother: Every day. (TRANSLATION)
Eddie B: Todo las dias.
SUBTITLE: Miguel’s Mother: Everyday. (TRANSLATION)
[11:43:07.08]
Cut to CU of Miguel’s Mother.
Cut to Wider Shot of Eddie and family at grave.
Eddie B (VO): Man that lady goes, been goin' there every single day.
[11:43:17.22]
Cut to CU of Eddie driving.
Eddie B: That's fucked up, man.
Cut to tracking driving shot of cemetery.
Eddie: So to me on this day, same day that the victim in my case died. This is it man. This is the end result.
Cut to CU of Eddie driving.
Eddie B: You took a life now you're paying with your life. It's like, you dumbass.
Cut to tracking driving shot of cemetery.
MUSIC BEGINS
Cut to CU of Eddie driving.
[11:43:45.01]
Cut to CU of a Big Bird sign hanging on a fence.
Small Child: No!
Pan up to a playground inside the fence with kids playing. Lil’ Mikey has found a part-time job at this daycare. He and another boy are building playhouses and assisting with the children.
Cut to TS of Mikey hammering a large nail.
Pan up to Mikey hammering.
[11:43:52.17]
LOWER THIRD: "Lil' Mikey" Davis
Cobe (VO): Lil Mikey, he showed some initiative on getting his own job.
Cut to WS of Mikey and another young man working.
Cobe (VO); His first real job.
Cut to MS of sign on building that reads: Smiling Faces, Child Care Center.
Cut to Mikey rolling out tarp over grass.
Cut to MS of a woman, Mikey and another boy.
Woman: Cause if you don't get that grass up first, what's it gonna do is come right through this paper.
[11:44:07.22]
Cut to CU of Mikey.
Woman (OS): So there's a, there's only one way to do this is to…
Cut to CU of Woman.
Woman: …do it the right way so we don't have to re-do it. Okay?
Cut to Mikey walking away.
Woman: Okay?
Mikey: Yep.
Woman: We got an understanding. Okay. Thank you.
Cut to Woman walking back inside.
[11:44:16.14]
Cut to WS of Mikey holding the tarp. He shrugs.
Boy: It don't come up.
Mikey: She the boss.
Cut to WS of the boys pulling off the tarp.
Cut to the boys raking up the grass.
[11:44:25.11]
Cut to CU of Mikey raking.
Mikey: Bein' on the block, you ain't gotta do this to make money.
Cut to CU of raking of grass.
Mikey (OS): Bein' with my guys all day.
Cut to CU of Mikey raking.
Mikey: Doin' what I wanna do when I wanna do it and how I want to do it. But…
Cut to MS of raking and Mikey’s feet.
Mikey (OS): …as long as I'm keepin' busy…
[11:44:46.22]
Cut to CU of Mikey pan down to raking, pan back up to Mikey
Mikey: I'm gonna be good.
Mikey: And as you can tell, this is keepin' me busy.
Cut to CU of Mikey leaning on rake.
Cut to Boy in white shirt.
Boy: This is tiring.
Cut to CU of Mikey.
Mikey: But I can't complain. Life good right now, for me.
[11:45:08.15]
Cut to MWS of Mikey.
Cut to CU of Mikey.
Mikey: I got a job. I got a job. All I used to hear, you’re a class x felon. Can't do nothin'. I'm doin' somethin'.
MUSIC BEGINS
Cut to WS of Mikey raking.
Cut to WS of him working inside, setting down cots for naptime. Mikey helps set out the cots and cover the children with blankets. The children lay down for naptime.
Mikey: You gonna sleep good?
Trevon: In the cot.
[11:45:44.12]
Cut to little boy growling.
Cut to MS of Mikey holding a sheet.
Mikey: ... Cuvelle, you don’t got this kinda cover do you? That's yours right there.
Cut to little girl in purple shirt.
Mikey: I got these.
Cut to little kids laying down in cots.
Mikey: Here you go Ja'on.
[11:45:56.21]
MS of Mikey spreading a blanket on a child. Zoom in on child looking at camera.
Mikey walks through a dark day care center.
Cut to two boys laying in their cots.
Cut to a little girl laying in her cot staring at camera.
MUSIC ENDS
[11:46:21.20]
Cut to two boys on a bike riding down the street on a sunny, summer day
Cut to WS of a park
[11:46:26.20]
SUBTITLES: Vanessa: When people text me, like they try to tell me...
Cut to CU of Eddie sitting on a bench
Cut to MS of Eddie, Kathryn, and Vanessa
LOWER THIRD: VANESSA VILLALBA
Vanessa: "...Oh we just wanna know what's the truth. Like what really happened to your brother."
Cut to CU of Vanessa
Vanessa: They're just tryin' seem like they care. But they don't.
[11:46:38.05]
Cut to MS of Kathryn and Vanessa, zooms in for CU of Catherine
LOWER THIRD: Kathryn Saclarides
Therapist
Kathryn: The way we kinda spoke about it is like Vanessa will like catch 'em off guard. You would say something like, "I know you're asking cause you really care about me,"--which they don't--"I'm doing great. Thanks for asking." And then...
Vanessa: Walk away.
Eddie B: That's good.
Cut to CU of Eddie.
Eddie B: That's a good one.
Cut to CU of Kathryn pans to Eddie.
Kathryn: And that way if any of 'em get in your face about anything and then you just tell Eddie.
[11:46:56.03]
Cut to CU of Vanessa.
Kathryn: She's even doing things in his honor like the art group right?
Vanessa: Mmhmm.
Kathryn: What did he always want to paint?
Cut to CU of Eddie.
Vanessa: He wanted to paint the Virgin Mary, but he never got the chance to do it. You know.
Cut to three shot of Eddie, Kathyrn and Vanessa on park bench.
Eddie B: Well you can do it for him.
[11:47:12.14]
Cut to CU of Vanessa.
Vanessa: I don’t know.
Cut to WS behind the park bench.
Vanessa: I dreamt that…
Cut to CU of Vanessa.
Vanessa: …my mom went to pick me up at school with my little sister.
[11:47:22.17]
Cut to CU of Vanessa’s hands.
Vanessa: …and then my brother came from the door and he ran to me.
Cut to CU of Eddie.
Vanessa (OS): …and he gave me a big hug.
Cut to CU of Vanessa.
Vanessa: He told me I'm not dead, I'm still here with you.
[11:47:30.16]
Cut to CU of Eddie, pan to Vanessa.
Eddie B: You think he's with you right now?
Vanessa: Yea.
Eddie B: I think so too.
Eddie B: It gets better, believe me.
Cut to CU of Eddie.
Eddie B: For some reason time kinda heals things. You know.
[11:47:42.20]
Cut to CU of Vanessa.
Vanessa: Yea.
Cut to WS of a street corner with a store sign hanging above a sidewalk.
Cut to CU of one of the signs hanging on the building: Takada Udlet Salon & Day Spa
The sound of a door chime can be heard.
Cut to a interior CU of a hair stylist.
Man’s Voice (OS): So what else are we doing to make you beautiful today?
Cut to Caprysha sitting in stylist chair. Ameena sits looking at her. The stylist stand behind Caprysha.
[11:47:54.24]
Caprysha: I don't know. I was just goin' with the flow.
Cut to CU of Caprysha. Ameena looks on.
Caprysha: I start school tomorrow.
Off camera male: Excellent. And this year's goal is what?
Caprysha: To graduate...
Off camera male: I got you.
Caprysha: ...and get my high school diploma.
[11:48:05.14]
Cut to reverse CU of Caprysha getting her hair styled.
Ameena (VO): She was sayin' that tomorrow's the first day of school and I'm so excited and I was excited for her. She's goin' with a fresh hair-do.
Cut to interview with Ameena.
Ameena: I went today and found out school started three weeks ago.
Cut to WS of park as a man runs by. Ameena has met Caprysha to talk to her about not attending school at the park.
Caprysha: And I did go to school.
Ameena: You went to school when you got the fuck ready to. You didn't go up there when it was time for them to go in.
[11:48:25.14]
Caprysha: Actually yes I did, Miss Ameena, you don't know that. You you don't know that.
Ameena: Caprysha your counselor said you got there when you got there.
Caprysha: No, it I got there at 8:55 before everybody.
Ameena: Caprysha.
Caprysha: Right.
Cut to CU of Caprysha.
Ameena: You didn't fight hard enough for you to get up in that school and do what you need to do.
Caprysha: I ain't, I ain't gotta say nothin'.
Cut to CU of Ameena.
Ameena: Caprysha don't nobody have to kiss your ass for you to do what you need to do for you.
Pan from Ameena to Caprysha.
Caprysha: I'm still gonna be the same person at the end of the day.
Ameena: At the end of the day doin' what?
[11:48:52.14]
Caprysha: Gettin' my life together takes time.
Ameena: Time for what?
Cut to CU of Ameena.
Ameena: You did two years out of your life. Wasn't that enough time for you to get your life together?
Cut to closer shot of Ameena, pan to Capryhsa.
Ameena: What you do is you manipulate, you do this and you do that and then you so ashamed and afraid that when I ask you to be honest with me, you can't.
[11:49:10.14]
Cut to CU of Ameena.
Cut to two shot CU of Ameena getting in Caprysha’s face.
Ameena: Do you wanna be loved? Absolutely. Do you deserve to be loved?
Caprysha: No.
Ameena: Absolutely.
Caprysha: Nope.
Ameena: First thing you gotta love you.
Caprysha: Oh, I love myself.
Ameena: Caprysha, Caprysha.
[11:49:26.11]
Cut to CU of Caprysha
Ameena: When I stopped…
Cut to CU of Ameena.
Ameena: … allowin' the circumstances to dictate my life.
Cut to CU of Caprysha.
Ameena (OS): When I let that "fuck everybody" go, then I got real honest with my feelings, I'm scared, I'm hurtin'. It's okay though.
[11:49:46.07]
Ameena takes some food out of a bag.
Cut to two shot of Ameena and Caprysha on the park bench.
Caprysha: Well I'm not like you to open up so easy. Sorry...
Ameena: I don't open up so easy.
Ameena: I don't open up so easy. I open up as needed for me, because I wanna get better and continue to stay healthy.
Cut to reverse two shot of Ameena and Caprysha on the park bench.
Ameena: Why you choose not to?
Caprysha: Cause I like my life how it is now.
Ameena: You like your life doin' what?
Caprysha: Shit.
[11:50:07.07]
Ameena: Aight. Well I can't aid and abed shit. I flush shit.
[11:50:13.00]
Cut to WS of Caprysha as she gets up and walks away from Ameena.
Caprysha: You think everything's bullshit. You know what, you...
Ameena: You just said it.
Caprysha: ...you can keep thinkin' everything's bullshit though, real talk.
[11:50:20.08]
Cut to CU of Ameena.
Cut to Caprysha walking away as man jogs towards the camera.
Ameena (OS): You know, I remember being 19 and bein' a scared girl like that.
Cut to CU of Ameena.
Ameena: You know me bein' out there and doin' a lot of things that I did, I thought that I really was gettin' back at the person that I thought that should come and get me. And tell me you ain't gotta live like that.
Cut to trio of young men running on track.
Ameena: Man if I could go back…
[11:50:54.05]
Cut to CU of Ameena.
Ameena: …and make that pain go away for me today. If I could do that I would do that in a heartbeat. And that's so, so painful for me for her. Because she's gonna be my age some day. And it's gonna be a whole bunch of regrets.
Cut to MS of Ameena on park bench. Her phone rings.
Ameena: I don't even know what I'm doin' this. I must be glutton for punishment. This sucker, is there a sucker up there [pointing to her head and knocking on it]?
[11:51:29.05]
Cut to CU of Ameena talking to her phone
Ameena: Now sittin' here talkin' to you there was 15 times that I just wanted to get up and walk away from you. But I didn't and I couldn't...
Ameena (VO): I'm gonna be added on to the people that fucked her around. I'm not gonna call her again.
Cut to MCU of Ameena on park bench as young men run past on the track.
Ameena (VO): You know. I'm gonna be available for her at my availability.
[11:51:50.09]
Cut to two men running from the camera.
Cut to MCU of Ameena on the phone. The phone continues to ring without an answer.
Fade to black
[11:52:06.21]
CENTER TITLE: EPILOGUE
MUSIC STARTS
Fade up to interior CU of Kenneth
Cobe: I called your momma last week; she was happy, too.
Cut to CU of Toya.
Cobe: Saying, "Kenneth called me and told me he loved me!"
LOWER THIRD: Kenneth Oliver, Toya Batey
Cut to MS of Kenneth, Toya, and Cobe sitting at a table together.
Cobe: She was happy.
Toya: Yeah, I was happy, but I was worried, too.
[11:52:16.23]
Cut to CU of Toya
Toya: When you call and tell me you love me, I get worried, but I feel good at the same time, to hear it.
Kenneth: Oh, so I shouldn't've called.
Toya: No, you should!
Pan from Toya to Kenneth.
Toya: Cause it makes me know that y'all were thinking about me just as much as I'm thinking about y'all.
[11:52:30.24]
Toya (VO): Cobe made a difference in their life by…
Cut to CU of Cobe.
Toya (VO): …bein’ with them one on one, because they never really had a male role model.
Cobe: But it’s all good man, just stay focused though.
[11:52:39.24]
Cut to CU of Kenneth.
Toya: And I’m here when you need me.
Kenneth: I’ll call that, I call my mama every day.
Toya : Not every day. At least three times out of the week.
Kenneth: It's every day to me.
Cobe: Hahaha.
Cut to two shot of Kenneth and Toya.
Toya: You need a haircut.
SUBTITLE: Kenneth: Going to get dreads.
Toya: Lord.
[11:52:58.24]
Cut to panning WS of UIC School of Public Health building
Cut to MS of Tio, Cobe and Mikey sitting around a table in a small room. The three men are discussing the possibility of Mikey working with CeaseFire.
Tio: What kind of influence has Cobe been in your life?
Mikey: Cobe been bad and good influences on my life.
[11:53:06.22]
Cut to CU on Cobe.
Tio: Yea, you know we want you…
Cut to Tio OTS of Mikey and Cobe
Tio: …to become a professional, young brother.
Cut to MCU of Mikey pan left to Tio.
Tio: I'm not close-minded to the fact that uh if we can get a younger brother here. I'm open-minded to that.
[11:53:15.04]
Cut to MS of Cobe and Mikey.
Cobe: Now I know we ain't never hired no young people like that. I mean 18.
Tio: Right.
Cut to CU of Tio.
Tio: You gonna really be a crusader for peace now, you know.
Cut to CU of Mikey.
Tio: For those who want to listen.
Cut to WS exterior of Vanessa's house, Eddie B runs up the stairs to the door.
[11:53:26.06]
Cut to MS of Vanessa holding a painting up for Eddie B It is of the Virgin Mary with four small shadows standing below her and another larger shadow to the left of her, the word FORGIVENESS to her right.
Eddie B: So, who's all that down there?
Vanessa: My sister, and me, my mom, and my dad.
Eddie B: That's your brother up top?
Vanessa: Mmm-hmm.
[11:53:38.21]
Cut to CU of Vanessa's mom watching
Eddie B: You gonna put it up in your room?
Vanessa: No, his room.
Cut to Vanessa. She takes the painting and places it in Miguel's room. It is still full of clothes, sports trophies, and pictures of him.
Eddie B (VO): Her grades' declining. I'm just wondering, like, if it has to do with her brother. She got into a fight, and she was suspended. This person made a comment, she was already enraged, and that was probably her boiling point. That was it.
[11:54:00.24]
Cut to a pan of Miguel’s room.
Eddie B (VO): One day you might have all the strength you think you have, and you think, "You know what? I could go continue on with my life."
Cut to shot of framed pictures of Miguel.
Eddie B: You guys are going to the cemetery still?
Vanessa: Mm-hmm.
Eddie B: How often are you guys going now?
Cut to MCU of Vanessa standing in Miguel's room
Vanessa: Mmm, like try to go like three days a week.
Eddie B (VO): But then the next day...
Cut to WS of cemetery, grave marker on right of frame, Vanessa's family on the left
Eddie B (VO): ...your emotions are triggered by something, and it kind of puts them back to square one.
[11:54:24.24]
Cut to MS of Vanessa's mother and Vanessa's siblings grilling food
Eddie B (VO): So, I don't think people ever get over it.
[11:54:29.07]
Cut to CU of Vanessa's mother grilling.
Child: I did it.
Cut to MS of Vanessa's father staring into distance.
Cut to CU of Vanessa watching the food being prepared
[11:54:38.06]
Cut to WS of Warrenville Youth Center building
Cut to WS of Ameena ringing a bell on a gate into the center
Cut to MS over the shoulder of Ameena as Caprysha runs over and embraces her; both enter a common room full of other girls
Ameena: Heeey!
Caprysha: Hiii!
Ameena: Hey, sweetie.
Caprysha: Hey.
Ameena: Hey.
Ameena (VO): 24 hours after she walked off, she was locked up. She violated her parole, not going to school, staying away from the home, as well as dropping dirty.
[11:55:04.24]
Caprysha: This is my mother, Ms. Ameena.
Cut to MS of Caprysha introducing the girls to Ameena.
Caprysha: And these are all the girls, that's the fabulous females.
Ameena: Hey, divas! How are you?
Cut to tracking WS of Ameena and Caprysha walking down a hallway holding hands
Ameena: Where's the guards?
Caprysha: It's not guards, it's security staff.
Ameena: Oh, okay.
[11:55:15.07]
Cut to WS of Caprysha introducing Ameena to the principal
Caprysha: This our principal.
Ameena: How are you? I'm Ameena.
Principal: Hi, Sandy Eyebar.
Caprysha: She's pushing me to do school so I can graduate.
Principal: She's gonna graduate.
Ameena: I'm, you know, that's, that was our goal. So you may get your party after all.
Caprysha: Yep! I get a party.
[11:55:28.16]
Cut to CU of Ameena and Caprysha holding hands.
Caprysha (VO): I didn't think that she wasn't gonna come...
Cut to formal interview with Caprysha
Caprysha: ...but when I seen that, when I seen her at the door, I was happy to see her. And I felt that...
Music starts
Caprysha: ...I don't know.
Cut to WS of a play being performed by the youth center inmates.
[11:55:47.07]
Cut to MS of Ameena and Caprysha watching in the audience
Ameena (VO): She wasn't in the play today.
Cut to CU of the play’s program.
Ameena (VO): She got kicked out because of her behavior.
[11:55:58.07]
Cut to CU of Ameena leaning on Caprysha while Caprysha sings along with the song being performed in the play.
Capryhsa: (Singing) A chance to make amends. A chance to be someone. Just give me what I need the most…
Ameena (VO): When she gets out, what awaits Caprysha is her. It's gonna be a rough road. The hand that life dealt her--me too--there were all two's in it. She just has to learn how to play those two's as if it was a Boston.
Capryhsa: (Singing) To see my grandson smile…
CU of Ameena, pans to Caprysha
[11:56:31.19]
Cut to MS through a car window as Flamo wearing a safety vest walks up and opens the door and gets in the car.
LOWER THIRD: “Flamo”
Cobe: Oh, look at my man! Huh look at my main man! Flamo last time I saw you, you didn't have no uniform on. You had other things on your mind. Look at you man. You got your whole outfit.
Flamo: How you doin'?
Cobe: How you feel man?
Flamo: I'm alright.
Cut to CU of Star Security badge on Flamo’s sleeve.
Cobe: But shit you look like you doin' great.
Cut to CU of Flamo from back seat.
Flamo: Tryin' to do stuff positive and seein' how it workin'. And I ain't been to jail, I ain't been arguin' and fightin'. I ain't been havin' to shoot nobody.
[11:56:58.04]
Cut to two shot of the back of Cobe and Flamo from the back seat as they drive.
Cobe: Man I just so happy for you. I promise you boy, I'm so happy for you man.
Cut to CU of Cobe driving.
Flamo: I hope you do feel good about yourself. Cuz, to keep it real with you man, I had like three, four people lined up.
Cut to CU of Flamo in passenger seat.
Flamo: And I was really plottin' on how to get them. But you was just in my ear, you know what I'm sayin'?
[11:57:12.01]
Cut to Zoom in on Cobe.
Flamo: You constantly in my ear. You buggin' me for a minute.
Cut to CU of Flamo.
Flamo: You know what I'm sayin'?
Cobe (laughing): Like a bug?
Flamo: You know how that be like I'm sleepin', the fly keep landin' on you, you know what I'm sayin? You's buggin' me 'til eventually I had to get up and attend to that fly.
[11:57:29.07]
Cut to WS of the skyline in the background and the 'L' passing by under an overpass, seen through a chain link fence. Pull back to WS of the 'L' stop entrance.
MUSIC BEGINS
Cut to MS of Cobe in his car
Cobe: Flamo! I'ma get up with you.
Flamo exits Cobe’s car and goes to work as a security guard at the ‘L’ station.
[11:57:35.00]
Cut to MS shot of Flamo entering ‘L’ Station.
Cut to people walking through ‘L’ turnstiles.
Cut to Flamo in ‘L’ booth.
[11:57:57.05]
Cut to Cobe driving.
Cut to Eddie driving.
Cut to Ameena driving.
Cut to WS of Chicago skyline at dusk
Fade to black as music continues
[11:58:27.13]
CREDITS
[11:58:59:10]