Hoop Dreams

Synopsis

The American Dream is explored to the full in the story of two black students whose hope of success on the basketball court becomes a larger portrait of the pitfalls of the schooling system and the corporatisation of sport, from high school to college and beyond, where money overrules all concerns and potential players are mere pawns in a game they have no control over.

What originally began as a 30-minute documentary on young basketball hopefuls transformed into a 5-year project that is now seen as one of the great American documentaries. It is a heartfelt account of the successes and indignities suffered by Arthur Agee and William Gates as they make their way through the labyrinthine world of semi-professional basketball, laden down by the pressures of the sport, troubles at home and a system that offers them either success beyond their dreams or a bleak and hopeless future.

From the heart-stopping moment where a missed basket could end a career to the indignities the boys' parents are forced to suffer in order to secure some chance of success for their sons, HOOP DREAMS plays oout on a knife edge, between the belief that talent should ensure success and the reality of the role social circumstances play in it. It is compelling documentary filmmaking at its very best.

“Hoop Dreams” is the most powerful movie about sports ever made.” — – Hal Hinson, Washington Post

“A film like Hoop Dreams is what the movies are for. It takes us, shakes us, and make us think in new ways about the world around us. It gives us the impression of having touched life itself.” — – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times