What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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T2 WHATS UP! June 16 - 22, 2019 BY JOY DOONAN TV Media H ollywood mogul Ben Affleck is no stranger to the sub- genre of Boston crime dramas. The Academy Award winner grew up just outside of Boston, and his rise to directorial acclaim is marked by films about his hometown's criminal under- world. "Gone Baby Gone" (2007), a drama about a local private eye's hunt for a child abductor, displays the work- ing-class realities of a Boston neighborhood ridden with drugs and violence; 2010's "The Town" follows the real- life events of a large-scale bank robbery in Fenway Park. Now, Affleck has teamed up with childhood friend and co- Oscar winner Matt Damon ("The Departed," 2006) to co- executive produce his latest brainchild, "City on a Hill." The series, with a debut sea- son consisting of 10 episodes, is a fictionalized account of "Operation Ceasefire," a proj- ect now more commonly known as the Boston Miracle. Starring Kevin Bacon ("Foot- loose," 1984) and Aldis Hodge ("Straight Outta Compton," 2015) in lead roles, "City on a Hill" premieres Sunday, June 16, on Showtime. The Boston Miracle oc- curred in the '90s, when the city's police department im- plemented a program, de- signed by criminology profes- sor David M. Kennedy, to com- bat the rampant youth gun vio- lence of the time. The pro- gram, dubbed Operation Ceasefire, was groundbreak- ing in that it employed re- search tactics to help law en- forcement understand and ef- fectively target the main sources of gun trafficking and gang crimes. The project was such a sweeping success that Bos- ton's youth homicide rate fell by 63 percent, and it was the inspiration behind Group Vio- lence Intervention projects that are still being employed throughout New York and oth- er states today. Contemplating how the historic event of the Boston Miracle shook the Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge as seen in "City on a Hill" Operation Ceasefire continued on page T10 TV FEATURE