Director:
Steve James
Producer:
Frederick Marx, Steve James and Peter Gilbert
Editor:
William Haugse, Steve James and Frederick Marx
Music:
Ben Sidram
Screenplay:
Steve James and Frederick Marx
Director of Photography:
Peter Gilbert
This award-winning documentary covers four years in the lives of two young black teenagers from the Chicago slums, William Gates and Arthur Agee, who dream of becoming basketball players. They are spotted by talent scouts, and offered scholarships to a prestigious college in the largely white suburbs. There Arthur, struggling with the academic grades he must reach to keep his scholarship, fails and is asked to leave. William, however, goes from strength to strength, receiving extra funding, keeping up his grades (just) and becoming a real star on the basketball court. Then disaster: he badly injures his knee and has to undergo two operations. William, meantime, has had a baby with his girlfriend. Continuing to provide a fascinating insight into the lives of its two teenage protagonists, Hoop Dreams unflinchingly chronicles their trials and tribulations, despite which, their dreams of slam dunk glory remain undimmed.