Stevie
2003, 144 minutes
In 1995, filmmaker Steve James returns to Pomona, a beautiful rural hamlet in Southern Illinois to reconnect with Stevie Fielding, for whom James once served as an advocate Big Brother. He finds that the once difficult, awkward child has become -- ten years later -- an angry and troubled young man. Part way through filming, Stevie is arrested and charged with a serious crime. He confesses to the crime and then later recants. The filmmaker himself is drawn into the film as he tries to sort out his own feelings, past and present, about Stevie and how to deal with him in the wake of his arrest. What was to be a modest profile of Stevie, turns into an intimate four and a half year chronicle of a dysfunctional family's struggle to heal.
Stevie is a Kartemquin Films production in association with SenArt Films.
15 years later, Hoop Dreams is still a hit in Evanston... and Beijing!
January 11, 2010
An engaged and enthusiastic audience ventured out into the cold to watch Kartemquin's classic 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams in Evanston, IL yesterday. What was most notable about the crowd was the number of families with young children in attendance, clearly showing the continuing legacy of this great film. After the screening finished, the film's stars William Gates and Arthur Agee took part in a lengthy question and answer session, before autographing postcards and posters for the delighted fans, both old and new.
For photographs of this and other Hoop Dreams anniversary events, please visit our Facebook page.
Kartemquin would like to thank REELTIME for co-organizing the event, and our other outreach partners: All Our Sons Fund of the Evanston Community Foundation, and Black Men and Boys Initiative - Evanston.
The image also posted here is taken from Basketball Pioneers, a newspaper founded by Jordan Lee, who was inspired to become a writer after watching Hoop Dreams. He interviewed the film's director Steve James during Steve's recent trip to China for the IDOCS International Documentary Forum in Beijing, where Hoop Dreams and Stevie played for the first time to receptive Chinese audiences.
Mr. Lee stated that "at least half a million people" have read this article, "and from I have heard they loved it. I am sure that they are looking forward to watching the new Allen Iverson documentary, which I believe will be a great movie."
For more photos and interviews with Steve James from IDOCS, visit the offfical website.
- Director
- Steve James
- Producers
- Steve James
- Adam D. Singer
- Gordon Quinn
- Executive Producers
- Robert May
- Gordon Quinn
Toronto Film Festival – Official Selection
Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival – Grand Jury Joris Ivens Prize
Sundance Film Festival, 2003 – Excellence in Cinematography Award (Documentary)
Sundance Film Festival, 2003 – Nominee, Grand Jury Prize
Independent Spirit Awards, 2003 – Nominee, Best Documentary
"Brave...courageous and powerful...Stevie doesn't have the neat, almost poetic ending of Hoop Dreams, because sometimes life doesn't turn out that way. The movie is deeply sorrowful and impossible to forget."
—Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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