30th Anniversary of Hoop Dreams
30th Anniversary of Hoop Dreams
Added to the National Film Registry in 2005.
Added to the National Film Registry in 2005.
American documentary producer and director Steve James's Hoop Dreams follows two Black high school students from Chicago, William Gates and Arthur Agee, on their hopeful paths to the NBA. Thinking at first that the piece would be a half-hour short for public television, the project expanded as James and his crew spent five years filming over 250 hours of shot-on-video footage, a budget-conscious choice in an era during which film was still very much the standard. The result is a humanist work that took home an Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to critical acclaim and box office success.
DIRECTED BY: Steve James. WRITTEN BY: Steve James, Frederick Marx. WITH: William Gates, Arthur Agee, Emma Gates, Curtis Gates. 1994. 170 min. USA. Color. English. Rated PG-13. DCP. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in conjunction with the Sundance Institute. Preservation funded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Sundance Institute. Additional support provided by the Estate of Ronald Terry Shedlo. Laboratory services provided by Modern VideoFilm and Audio Mechanics. DCP courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.
Theater accessibility accommodations available upon request. Learn more about our accessibility initiatives.
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