Hoop Dreams

Director: Steve James
USA / 1993 / Color / 35mm / 169 min

Hoop Dreams is a three-hour documentary which chronicles the lives of basketball players William Gates and Arthur Agee from the summer after they leave grammar school through their freshman year in college in the fall of 1991. Hoop Dreams captures the complex relationship between American sports dreams and American realities in the inner-city. The film’s intimate portrait of William, Arthur, and their families dramatizes how the lack of opportunities feeds their belief that sports is the only viable way out of the inner-city. In pursuing their dreams, however, they must navigate their way through the business of sports which exploits athletes not only in high school but now as early as grammar school.