(You may skip the introduction and go right to the questions and answers.)
OnlineHost: Tonight's Hollywood Online's Inside Hollywood is pleased to present Peter Gilbert, filmmaker from "Hoop Dreams", to discuss this remarkable film and the Academy snub. First exhibited in 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.
OnlineHost: Hoop Dreams was selected as the Best Film of the year by both Siskel and Ebert, and also by Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times. It has been selected as the Best Documentary by the New York Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics, Texas Film Critics, Boston Film Critics, National Board of Review, National Society of Film Critics and the Chicago Film Critics.
OnlineHost: It has received Special Achievement Awards from IFP and the Producers Guild and has been nominated by the DGA for Best Documentary and by ACE, the editor's guild. With all of the critical accolades which "Hoop Dreams" received, it has only received an Academy Award nomination for Best Editing. The failure of the Academy to nominate "Hoop Dreams" in the Best Documentary category has caused an uproar, which provoked the head of the Academy to announce the launch of an investigation into the nomination procedure of this committee in response to the overwhelming reaction to the snub of Hoop Dreams.
OnlineHost: Peter Gilbert, one of the three filmmakers and Director of Photography for "Hoop Dreams, is based in Chicago. His film credits include the 1990 Academy Award winning, feature-length documentary, "American Dream," directed by Barbara Kopple; "A Long Way Home," directed by Michael Apted, produced and distributed worldwide by Granada TV; the Peabody Award winning "Age 7 in America," produced by Michael Apted and directed by Phil Joanou, which was broadcast on CBS-TV; and "Bookmark: Day of the Dead," produced and directed for the BBC.
OnlineHost: Recently, Gilbert was Director of Photography for the ABC weekly television drama, "Missing Persons," starring Daniel J. Travanti. Born in Chicago, he is a graduate of New York University Film School, and currently resides in Chicago.
JoeyBerlin: Welcome, Peter.
OnlineHost: Joining us on-stage tonight is Joey Berlin, host of Hollywood Online's Inside Hollywood, located online at keyword: Hollywood.
HOL Live: And I am your host for this evening, coming to you live from the Hollywood Online offices. Greetings, everyone!
PETER GILBERT: Hi Joey, nice to be online!
JoeyBerlin: Peter, let's get right to it. Do you feel snubbed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences?
PETER GILBERT: I don't feel "snubbed," I feel like I've joined an exclusive club by not being nominated for best documentary. Filmmakers like Michael Apted, Errol Morris, and Michael Moore.PJ Carome.
Question: How much did you know about William and Arthur before starting to shoot? What made you select them as your two subjects?
PETER GILBERT: We basically found the kids exactly the way you see it in the film. Earl Smith led us to Arthur Agee, and then brought us and his family out to St. Joseph's High School.
Question: Great movie. Can you tell us how Arthur is doing in Arkansas? And does he any chance of playing ball in Europe next year?
PETER GILBERT: Arthur just finished his season at AK State. He was the starting point guard. He played very strong in the 2nd half of the season, and will graduate college in December. He's hoping to get asked to NBA and CAB try-outs. He still has the dream.
Question: When you started filming, did you have any inkling that the stories of these two kids would encompass so many different issues? It must have been a documentarian's dream!
PETER GILBERT: When we started, we knew that the subject matter had a great wealth of experiences that we could put on the screen, but we had no idea how compelling the kids their families' were going to be. They just kept growing exponentially as the years went on bringing in more complex issues at every twist and turn.
Question: Some of the folks at St Joe's (coach, guy in finance office) seemed to really themselves as caring only about $$ and wins, and not about the kids they were dealing with. How did you get them to give you permission to film and use the footage?
PETER GILBERT: We were very honest and straightforward with them from the beginning, and I don't think they really totally understood what we were making the film about. We got normal, standard release forms from all the participants. St Josephs actually does a lot to help kids. They helped William which we show in the film very vividly. It's just, with Arthur, that we felt there were some problems It's always hard for kids when adults expect them to come through for them and actually give the adult the dream they wanted instead of the kid.
Question: How does it feel to have some of the biggest names in Hollywood backing you up?
PETER GILBERT: From when the film was discovered one year ago at Sundance, the Hollywood film community has really embraced the film. That's why I don't feel snubbed about the Academy Awards, because I know so many people in the Hollywood community love and support the film.
Question: How long did it take you to edit all the film into the movie we saw on screen?
PETER GILBERT: We edited the film for 2 and a half years. We had 250 hours of material, which we edited down to two hours and fifty minutes. Our first rough cut was 8 hours long. What a nightmare!
Fine Line2: In fictional films, you get as many takes as you want to get a shot the way you want it. In Hoop Dreams, there are so many incredible moments that you captured without a second chance. From the shot of Arthur grinning in the car at the sound of Isaiah Thomas's name, to the crucial free throws by William. How did it feel to get those shots, and were there some that you missed because you didn't get a second chance?
PETER GILBERT: When you capture a moment in real life, a moment that rings true, such as Shelia graduating from nursing school, there is no other high like it. It only happens once, and you have to... anticipate and be ready to capture it, as well as capture coverage, so that you can lengthen and shorten it in the editing. I learned from really great filmmakers like Barbara Kopple, Michael Apted, and Gordon Quinn, how to photograph films and anticipate the actions of real people.
Question: Everyone I know who has seen "Hoop Dreams'' -- a really diverse group of people -- has loved it. So what's the Academy's hangup? Is it something simple, such as they just don't "get" documentaries, or something a little more complicated, such as lack of sympathy with the kid protagonists -- the much-feared young black male?
PETER GILBERT: The Academy has a history of not nominating popular, distributed documentaries. We want to reform how documentaries are chosen. Documentary filmmakers are an ethnically diverse.. group who are based nationwide, not just in Los Angeles like the Hollywood feature film community. Kartemquin Films in Chicago, where Hoop Dreams was produced, has been making documentary for 30 years. It would be great if studios like Kartemquin and other documentary filmmakers from all over the country could vote on the best documentary of the year for the Oscars. As it stands now, you have to live in LA, and go to screenings to vote for the films. We would like to use videotape so documentarians all over the country could vote for their peers.
JoeyBerlin: Do you think Arthur Hiller's examination of the doc nominating process will lead to reform?
PETER GILBERT: I hope it does, Joey. When the first publicity came out, he was talking about acting very quickly in regards to looking into the committee's actions. He seems to have backed off lately. We intend to keep pushing so that the process is reformed for next year. I hope people understand it's not sour grapes on our part. - we feel bad for the five documentary nominees, because I'm sure all their films are good, and they are getting no publicity because of the clamor over Hoop Dreams. This seems to happen all the time in the documentary category. You never see these controversies when the editors vote for editing, the directors vote for directing, etc. We just want it reformed to end the controversy and encourage the art of making documentary films.
HOL Live: GTMarmots has read in Adweek and the Daily News that Peter and Steve are directing commercials for Prime Sports. How does their vision translate to television advertising?
Fine Line2: (BTW, Steve is Steve James, the Director of Hoop Dreams.)
PETER GILBERT: We've made all kinds of films over the last 15 years to make a living - let's talk about Hoop Dreams.
Question: Was it more or less difficult to get support for this film vs. others you have done?
PETER GILBERT: It's hard to make any film. The funding for this film was very difficult. At Kartemquin films, we have a good track record of receiving grants and public support from the NEA, CPB, and ITVS. We started the film with NEA money (only $2500 for the first 3 years), then public television kicked in with an additional amount to help us out. Write your Senators and Congressmen to gain support for the arts! Don't let PBS die - it may not be perfect, but it's very important for independent filmmakers. Hoop Dreams and Kartemquin Films needed PBS to help us make films and survive! It was hard to get funding in general because the film was about sports and inner-city kids. Lots of funding organizations don't take sports as a serious way to look into our society. It was an uphill battle.
Question: How difficult is it to get funding for documentary projects?
PETER GILBERT: It is painful, but not insurmountable. You just have to have passion for your film.
Question: Is the treatment of William and Arthur typical of high school athletes?
PETER GILBERT: That's a difficult question to answer - I'm not a journalist or a sociologist. I'm a filmmaker. It certainly was representative of the sports scene that we witnessed for 5 years in Chicago. It's a complex question.
Question: Did you have more than just two player-subjects when you were first starting the project?
PETER GILBERT: We researched a couple of kids other than William and Arthur, but what you see is what you get in the film. We found the kids just the way it's portrayed in the film - off the playgrounds Chicago.
Question: I heard that Spike Lee is going to direct the sequel, is that true? Will there be a sequel?
PETER GILBERT: Spike Lee is executive-producing for Turner Pictures, are-make of Hoop Dreams. It's possible he'll direct it.
Question: Have William and Arthur seen the film? And if so what are their opinions of it?
PETER GILBERT: They've both seen the film (many times). They both love the film, because the feel as though their stories were honestly told. They've been proud to be a part of the Hoop Dreams phenomenon.
Question: How much do you think the two young men reacted differently because the cameras were always around?
PETER GILBERT: Actually, I'm always surprised how little the camera affects real life. Arthur still got booted out of St. Joes. His dad still had a drug problem. William had a child when he was 15. So I don't think the camera changes real life very much. I think we wore them down in the first year and they just ignored it after that.
Question: After five years, what went into your decision to stop filming?
PETER GILBERT: What hooked us into filming for five years was coach Pingatore's promise to Arthur to... help him get in to college. Then it seemed right to film the kids through high school to see what would happen to them. It just was a logical choice.
Question: Did you shoot on film or video, and did you edit digitally?
PETER GILBERT: We shot on video tape, beta-cam. There was no way we could have afforded to shoot on film. We did not edit digitally - we edited on VHS off-line, because of the amount of material we had.
No computer could take 250 raw hours of footage (none that we could afford).
HOL Live: JasBeMe wants to know that with documentaries such as Hoop Dreams being so successful in mainstream, where is the dividing line between feature and documentaries, and should there be one.
PETER GILBERT: Good storytelling is good storytelling. Hoop Dreams tells a narrative, the same as any other Hollywood feature. It just has all the twist and turns of real life.
OnlineHost: Our thanks to Peter Gilbert, filmmaker from "Hoop Dreams", for appearing online tonight and to Hollywood Online's Inside Hollywood for making this event possible.
OnlineHost: Our thanks to Joey Berlin, host of Hollywood Online's Inside Hollywood, for joining us onstage tonight.
OnlineHost: Hollywood Online would like to extend a special thank you to Nina Barrengos, who worked very hard to build the HOOP DREAMS' mailbox.
OnlineHost: Goodnight from Hollywood Online!
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