Hoop Dreams
1994, 176 minutes
"The best film of the 1990's" - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
First exhibited at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the audience award for best documentary, Hoop Dreams is the remarkable true story of two American dreamers; an intimate reflection of contemporary American inner-city culture, following two ordinary young men on the courts of the game they love.
Plucked from the streets and given the opportunity to attend a suburban prep school and play for a legendary high school coach, William Gates and Arthur Agee both soon discover that their dreams of NBA glory become obscured amid the intense pressures of academics, family life, economics and athletic competitiveness. But most importantly, both boys remain focused on their dream, no matter how hard tragedy strikes or how desperate their situation becomes. It is their faith in the game that unites their family and gives each person hope. And it is this faith that ultimately allows them to build upon their failures as well as their triumphs and make for themselves a potentially better life.
"At its center, we wanted the film to be warm and emotional," says producer Peter Gilbert. "We want people to see these families as going through some very rough times, overcoming a lot of obstacles, and rising above some of the typical media stereotypes that people have about inner-city families."
What emerges from Hoop Dreams is far more than a sympathetic portrait of two black teenagers reaching for the stars. While remaining epic in scope, it manages to be intimate in detail, chronicling the universal process of growing up, coming of age, the love and conflict between fathers and sons, brothers, best friends and spouses.
It's about success and failure not just on the court, but in school, at home, and ultimately, in society. And it does it in a way that no other film on sports has done before: it gives viewers an intimate look at the pursuit of the basketball dream while it is actually happening. Hoop Dreams was recently named to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry, signifying its enduring importance to the history of American film.
Farewell and thanks to At the Movies
August 16, 2010
This weekend saw the final episode of At the Movies broadcast on American television. Kartemquin has always been fond of the program ever since it was so integral in raising awareness of Hoop Dreams with this famous review in 1994.
It seems we're not alone in feeling this way, as many other writers over the past few days have marked the end of the show with tributes that make special mention of that landmark Hoop Dreams review, including NPR, IFC.com, Reuters, and the superb Not Just Movies blog, who felt that most appropriate way to pay tribute to was by profiling Hoop Dreams in detail, since they discovered the film "solely through the attention it received on the program."
Our thanks and eternal gratitude go to Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert and At the Movies.
- Producers
- Steve James
- Frederick Marx
- Peter Gilbert
- Director
- Steve James
- Executive Producer
- Gordon Quinn
- Catherine Allen
Academy Awards, 1995 – Nominee, Best Film Editing
George Foster Peabody Award, 1995
Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, 1995
Sundance Film Festival, 1994 – Audience Award
International Documentary Association, 1994 –Distinguished Documentary Achievement
"Today, fifteen years after I first saw it, I believe "Hoop Dreams" is the great American documentary. No other documentary has ever touched me more deeply. It was relevant then, and today, as inner city neighborhoods sink deeper into the despair of children murdering children, it is more relevant."
—Roger Ebert, Chicago-Sun Times, for Hoop Dreams' 15th Anniversary in 2009.
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