Something went wrong
Try again later.
Hoop Dreams
This documentary follows two young African-Americans through their high school years as they perfect their skills in basketball in the hopes of getting a college scholarship and eventually play in the NBA. Arthur Agee and William Gates both show great potential and are are actively recruited as they look to enter high school. They start off at the same high school but unable to pay an unexpected bill for tuition fees, Arthur has to withdraw and go to the local public high school. The film follows them through their four years of high school and their trials and tribulations: injuries, slumps and the never ending battle to maintain their grades. Through it all, their hoop dreams continue.
9 June 1939, East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA
1 March 1973, Detroit, Michigan, USA
30 April 1961, Chicago, Illinois, USA
30 January 1973, Detroit, Michigan, USA
25 October 1940, Massillon, Ohio, USA
22 November 1972, Chicago, Illinois, USA
12 January 1952
4 July 1947, The Bronx, New York, USA
20 March 1957, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
18 September 1952, New York City, New York, USA
24 January 1957, Chateaugay, New York, USA
February 13, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois, USA
28 December 1971, Chicago, Illinois, USA
August 07, 2011
It slam-dunks documentaries that are so close-up to their subjects they cannot note the irony of adult commercialism and hard-sell hoopla overwhelming barely literate kids.March 31, 2008
Hoop Dreams has shown us that the rules of the game are stacked against kids like Gates and Agee. Even better, it shows us how they fight back, with the inside moves of hope.June 08, 2005
An ironic drama so beautifully sculpted it could be transposed without alteration into a fictional film.January 24, 2011
Epic is a word that suits Hoop Dreams well: The film seems to encompass not just a few individuals' stories, but draw archetypes out of them to personify the larger world around.August 19, 2016
... well worth your time for the up close and personal view it provides of how issues of race and class play out in the lives of these talented young men and their families.August 03, 2008
It's about three hours long. But it moves like Isiah, fast and smooth, and it's over in a heartbreak.March 21, 2007
A heady dose of the American dream and the American nightmare combined -- a numbing investigation of how one point on an exam or one basket or turnover in a game can make all the difference in a family's fortunes.July 16, 2013
Steve James's remarkable example of cinéma vérité tells the problematic journey of high school basketball stars William Gates and Arthur Agee, two African-American teenagers growing up in Chicago ghettos.March 24, 2008
The result not only follows the lives of the boys as they mature into men, suffering success and disaster along the way, but also provides a picture of tough inner-city life shorn of glamour or unnecessary melodrama.June 24, 2006
Unforgettable.January 01, 2011
Stunning documentary, great for older kids.March 21, 2007
A prodigious achievement that conveys the fabric of modern American life, aspirations and incidentally, sports, in close-up and at length, Hoop Dreams is a documentary slam dunk.