Hoop Dreams

About the Film

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 "white" 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."

"HOOP DREAMS" began as a very modest film. Back in 1986, the filmmakers approached Gordon Quinn of Kartemquin Films, the legendary documentary production company, about making a short film which would examine the culture of "street basketball" on Chicago's playground courts.

But with the discovery of William and Arthur, and support and guidance from Kartemquin, the film grew in ambition and scope. No longer a film short, the project realized its own impossible dream of becoming an epic chronicle of the boys and their families' lives over nearly five years.

Filmmakers Steve James, Frederick Marx, and Peter Gilbert collected 250 hours of film conducting interviews with the boys and their families and friends, eavesdropping on birthday parties and nightly dinners, filming practice sessions as well as games. The result is a rich and complex portrait of two inner-city boys growing up with the Dream.

Director Steve James, a longtime basketball player and fan like his colleagues, speaks about the boys' intense desire to escape their complex and violent worlds through basketball: "The dream is about far more than the fantasy of playing in the NBA. It provides kids like William and Arthur with an identity and real opportunities. It can be a daily escape from the hard realities of the inner city and even help hold their families together. If they risk tragedy by caring too much about basketball, it's because the game is one of the precious few ways they know of to achieve a better life."

Even with so much being written about the exploitation of athletes in college basketball, "HOOP DREAMS" is the first major film to present the complex issue of kids, sports and education at the high school level, where abuse of power and rigorous adherence to the letter of the law have even more powerful ramifications.

"We want viewers to take a good, hard look at the system of sports in America today, and how it is affecting kids at an increasingly younger age, starting in grammar school," adds producer Frederick Marx. "It puts them through the mill before they even have a chance of knowing who they are."

To be sure, basketball has, over the past fifteen years, become America's most high-profile (and profitable) sport. Once culturally invisible, the NBA has become one of the decade's top international marketing successes, with this year's finals telecast in over 100 nations around the world. The game has consciously made an effort to embrace the high-powered aggressive stylings of the "street" game as played in America's inner cities, promoting the dominating, in-your-face approach of superstars like Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley.

As William and Arthur make the uneasy transition from the ill-kept concrete courts of their neighborhood to the polished wooden floors of St. Joseph High School, we meet the members of their family who will share in their dreams and alter their destiny over the next few years: Curtis Gates, William's older brother who once dreamed of a basketball career himself but now works at a low-paying job without much future; Arthur "Bo" Agee, whose own commitment as a father will be tested as he battles addiction; the boys' devoted mothers, each still clinging on to their own dreams of success for themselves and their families as they struggle to remain afloat economically and emotionally. Indeed, we discover that the dreams of basketball glory at the center of the film are dreams of entire families, not just two boys. We watch each family and each individual compare events in the lives of Arthur and William against their own personal definitions of success and failure -- both motivating Arthur and William yet increasing the pressure on them as well.

We also meet the assortment of talent scouts, coaches and celebrity figures who most directly influence the direction of the boys' lives: Earl Smith, the longtime Chicago street scout who recommends Arthur, barely an adolescent, for the school team; Gene Pingatore, St. Joseph's legendary coach, who discovered and developed NBA superstar Isiah Thomas; and Patricia Weir, a "friend" of St. Joseph's who becomes a "sponsor" for one of the boys that insures his tuition will be paid at the school. Isiah Thomas himself, as well as Bobby Knight, Dick Vitale and Spike Lee, all manage to work their way into the boys' lives, each offering their perspective on the game of basketball and the life of a basketball player.

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.

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