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

FRONTLINE follows a group of former gang leaders trying to "interrupt" shootings and protect their communities from the violence they once committed. The film follows the inner workings of CeaseFire, an innovative program in Chicago designed to prevent shootings, including weekly meetings where the interrupters report on the simmering disputes and the senseless shootings in their neighborhoods.

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

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

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

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

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

This special educational module explores the relationship between Ameena Matthews and Caprysha Anderson, a troubled teen who is struggling with violence both as a victim and a perpetrator. Ameena faces challenges as she helps Caprysha follow the right path.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Review the 2005 incident in Haditha and what it can tell us about the moral and legal maze of U.S. troops' involvement in Iraq. 2/7/2012

FRONTLINE examines the implications of the Fukushima accident for U.S. nuclear safety, and asks how this disaster will affect the future of nuclear energy around the world.

Coming Jan. 10, FRONTLINE and ProPublica team up to investigate the American citizen who developed the blueprint for the most spectacular terror attack since 9/11 -- the 2008 attack on Mumbai, in A Perfect Terrorist.

A longtime humanitarian aid worker, Khalil Dale is no stranger to the dangersinherent in his line of work. He spoke to FRONTLINE in 1998 about how the dangers delivering famine relief in Somalia proved to be a turning point for the Red Cross.

Stephen Grey and Martin Smith go inside the deepest front in America's war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban: Pakistan. They uncover new details about border-crossing CIA-funded Afghan militias, investigate covert support for elements of the Taliban by the Pakistani military and intelligence, and explore the Obama administration's escalated campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Afghan opium farmers have long borrowed money from drug gangs to subsidize their crops. Now, as the Afghan government destroys their livelihood in an eradication program, the farmers find themselves in a horrifying situation: repay their debts or give their daughters to drug-traffickers. Najibullah Quraishi reports on the harrowing story of the collateral damage of the counter-narcotics effort.