Hoop Dreams followup by YourEnchantedGardener Blog entry

Blog: Plant Your Dream!
by YourEnchantedGardener

Hoop Dreams followup

Hoop Dreams followup

Important film.--Leslie

With more and more children across the world pursuing their own hoop dreams, the film’s portrait of athletic exploitation and economic marginalization remains as affecting and topical as ever. Hoop Dreams was recently named to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry, signifying its importance to the history of American film, but this is a movie whose reach and relevance is increasingly global in scope. If the past 20 years have been any indication, Hoop Dreams will continue to transcend its humble, Midwestern origins—comforting the afflicted, afflicting the comfortable, and entertaining audiences all over the world.--Will Di Novi

Date: 7/26/2014 4:59:19 AM ( 10 y ) ... viewed 864 times

Hoop Dreams follow up

Available on Netflix--I watched it July 26, 2014

ON YOUTUBE TOO

With more and more children across the world pursuing their own hoop dreams, the film’s portrait of athletic exploitation and economic marginalization remains as affecting and topical as ever. Hoop Dreams was recently named to the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry, signifying its importance to the history of American film, but this is a movie whose reach and relevance is increasingly global in scope. If the past 20 years have been any indication, Hoop Dreams will continue to transcend its humble, Midwestern origins—comforting the afflicted, afflicting the comfortable, and entertaining audiences all over the world.

Will Di Novi is a writer and film programmer based in Toronto. He has written for such publications as The Atlantic, The Paris Review, Salon and The New Republic.

http://povmagazine.com/articles/view/game-changer

Wikipedia0
hoop dreams

Hoop Dreams is a 1994 documentary film directed by Steve James and written by Steven James and Frederick Marx, with Kartemquin Films. It follows the story of two African-American high school students in Chicago and their dream of becoming professional basketball players.

Originally intended to be a 30-minute short produced for the Public Broadcasting Service, it eventually led to five years of filming and 250 hours of footage. It premiered at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. Despite its length (171 minutes) and unlikely commercial genre, it received high critical and popular acclaim. It ended its run in the box office with $11,830,611 worldwide.

Reception[edit]
The film was universally acclaimed by critics. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film "Two Thumbs Up" on their show and both Siskel and Ebert named Hoop Dreams the best film of 1994.[2] Ebert in his initial television review proclaimed "This is one of the best films about American life that I have ever seen", and later called it the best film of the decade.[2] In 2004, The New York Times placed the film on its Best 1000 Movies Ever list.[3] The film currently has a 98% rating from Rotten Tomatoes, with only one negative review (against 47 positive).[4] The film was ranked #1 on the International Documentary Association's Top 25 Documentaries list, based on polling of members in 2007.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoop_Dreams

William Gates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vLq38ReV9o

Arthur Agee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN-d8vqMXxQ

http://blogs.denverpost.com/nuggets/2012/03/27/agees-presence-chicago-hoop-dream-nuggets-pr-director/6211/

meat market aspects touched on in this film.

WONDERFUL STORY

BROKEN DREAMS

CHICAGO -- The asphalt is still cracked and dried, just as the neighborhood is still cracked and dried. Weeds sprouting from the concrete, muscling up to breathe in the heat of another Cabrini Green summer.

Ten years have passed, 10 years since one of America's most dangerous public housing projects became a laboratory for a documentary film director and his crew, who set out to find the essence of athletic hope among black children hypnotized by basketball in the inner city.

"Hoop Dreams" chronicled the NBA aspirations of two adolescent boys and their families. Their pursuit unveiled broader themes of struggle and adversity -- in a world constantly telling young William Gates and Arthur Agee they were not supposed to make it.

"If you think about it, we were the first reality series," William Gates, a pastor, said. "We just didn't bank in like everybody else. Nowadays, even the 'Survivor' losers go on TV and get paid."

The film's $8 million box-office take made it the highest grossing documentary of all time. Since its theatrical release in October 1994, the only documentaries more successful have been Michael Moore's most recent film, "Fahrenheit 9/11," Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," and the IMax movie-like "Winged Migration."

Viewers first meet Arthur as a doe-eyed 14-year-old on his way to see NBA star Isiah Thomas at a prestigious basketball camp, hosted by a private Catholic high school his parents cannot afford. William soon fills the screen, emerging as his family's last beacon for pro basketball stardom. Their disparate journeys play out over three unsparing hours. Two teenaged protagonists use their skills and desire to try and vault them over every hurdle of urban blight: teen pregnancy, poverty, crime, crumbling public schools, parental drug use and abandonment.

MONEY

After James and his partners had paid their bills, he split the profits with the families, which he estimates totaled between $175,000 and $200,000.

Arthur's family pooled their shares, and eventually moved out of the West Garfield Park housing projects and into the neighboring Chicago suburb of Berwyn, where they now reside. William estimated he received about $150,000, but concedes he "wasted some, gave a lot of money away and gave above and beyond to the church.

THE NEXT WAVE

Said Gates: "What would have been ideal was for me and Arthur's family to live happily and that we have enough money to do whatever we need to do. But it didn't pan out that way. We never caught that next wave."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27976-2004Jul4.html

jan 2013

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/high_school/high_school_boys_basketball/article/Hoop-dreams-remake-takes-place-at-Clemens-4208915.php

https://www.facebook.com/people/Arthur-G-Agee-Jr/100000534468495

SEQUEL

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0803005/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W045LE/ref=atv_feed_catalog?tag=imdb-amazonvideo-20

FOLLOW UP

JOSH DAVIS--Aztecs basketball, 2013-2014

XAVIER THAMES
https://twitter.com/Xthames2

2:57 am26
july 26, 2014