Hoop Dreams
(1994)

Director: Steve James

Key Cast: William Gates, Arthur Agee, Emma Gates, Curtis Gates, Sheila Agee, Arthur Agee Sr., Earl Smith, Gene Pingatore, Isaiah Thomas, Sister Marilyn Hopewell, Bill Gleason

Rating: PG-13

Genre(s): Documentary, Sport

"Hoop Dreams" chronicles the journey of two young African-American men, Williams Gates and Arthur Agee, who aspire to play professional basketball.  They both live in the inner-city of Chicago and are given basketball scholarships to attend a private high school that is ninety minutes away.

The documentary covers all aspects of their lives, including personal family struggles. As William Gates and Arthur Agee strive to excel at basketball, they also have personal and societal pressures that make achieving their goal even tougher.

Originally, Hoop Dreams was intended to be a thirty minute film.  But, it ultimately became a full-length documentary that took over five years to film.  It received much critical acclaim for its intimate portrait of these two young men and their lives.

∙  "Hoop Dreams" premiered in 1994 at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary.

∙  "Hoop Dreams" made more film critics top ten lists than any other film released during the same year.

∙  The Motion Picture Academy was heavily criticized for not nominating Hoop Dreams for a Best Documentary Academy Award.

∙  After the film was released, Arthur Agee’s father (Bo Agee) and William Gates older brother (Curtis Gates) were killed in Chicago in unrelated homicides.  Both men appear in the documentary.

∙  Nominated for a 1996 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding News, Talk or Information Special

∙  Nominated for a 1996 Academy Award for Best Film Editing

∙  Won 1994 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for a Documentary

∙  Selected in 2005 to the Library of Congress National Film Registry

Buy the Hoop Dreams Movie Documentary DVD
"Hoop Dreams" is a riveting documentary about the
basketball aspirations of two young African-American
men from the inner city of Chicago, William Gates and
Arthur Agee.

This real-life drama took over five years to film.

 
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Hoop Dreams Movie Poster
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