Documentary Review: Hoop Dreams

Hoop Dreams

Synopsis: A film following the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional. 

Dir. Steve James

Release Date: 1994

Review - 

Personally I found this documentary engaging, intimate and thought provoking, it left me questioning a lot of things, mostly negative, about the sport and the wider implications it has on young black adolescent boys. Is it fair that the system is to cherry pick and disregard the rest when necessary? Is it fair that some deemed talented enough get 'passes' all the way through their education life (education literally paid for entirely) whereas others don't as they're not deemed gifted enough (not worthy of the investment)? 

(Hoop Dreams - 1994)

What I found the beauty to be with this documentary was its narrative, the way in which it followed so intimately the lives of the two main protagonists, (William Gates, Arthur Agee) we began to feel a connection an when knock-backs were conceived by one or both, genuine fear would sink in for the viewer and the cruel realities rapidly began to appear. The director clearly wanted to show the distinct cruelties and pain that come with wanting to be an all star basketball player, the harshness of reality, as what can be inflicted psychologically on some of these extremely young kids is daunting, and possibly bringing into question whether this way of trying to raise potential 'superstars' is actually wrong? 

- What I found to be useful from watching this documentary was its narrative and structure, it was coherent, clever and wonderfully executed. It was effective and simple, like beautifully assembled building blocks unified creating a solid rock wall, in the sense that there were clear steps the story took and there was no confusion as to where we were in the timeline, we followed them growing up, year by year, consistently as well. 

- As well as this it gave me food for thought on a number of ideas to apply to my own work, e.g gathering statistics, trying to think more about our own narrative and what story to follow etc, what is the most interesting story and why? 

Overall, having viewed and thoroughly enjoyed this documentary, I can say that I have absorbed more than just the typical viewer, as it was engaging on another level due clearly to the reason of being in the midst of creating our own.