Chicago Director Steve James to Speak at Energy BBDO Creative Salon

Steve James made his name in 1994 with the documentary Hoop Dreams which chronicles six years in the lives of two young athletes from Chicago with NBA aspirations and offers a rare, multidimensional view of life in the inner city. The film won every major critics award, a Peabody, and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and was described by Roger Ebert as “one of the great moviegoing experiences of my lifetime.”

James’s latest work, The Interrupters, which he produced, directed and shot himself, follows three former gang members working with the local CeaseFire program to intervene in violent conflicts in the community. The film premiered last year at the Sundance Film Festival and has gone on to receive widespread critical acclaim. Reader critic J.R. Jones writes, “You couldn’t ask for a more thoughtful or moving examination of a more profound American problem.”