Film
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Hoop Dreams Almost three hours long, this great sports documentary from 1994 is poignant for a couple of reasons. First, it’s been restored and reissued in the same year that the doc Life Itself-about the late Roger Ebert, who championed Hoop Dreams-came out. Life Itself is on this year’s Oscar shortlist, and it’s a sentimental favorite to make the actual cut of five nominees-as Hoop Dreams failed to do, which was something of a scandal at the time. (Ebert, of course, led the outraged critics’ community.) Second, consider the subject matter. Filming over six years (!), James creates a sociological portrait of poor black teens grasping for a way out of the Chicago housing projects. High-school basketball may be the putative topic here, but James’ real focus is on the pressures, expectations, and wishful thinking of two players, Arthur Agee and William Gates, who somehow hope to transcend circumstance and reach the NBA like Michael Jordan. (It’s no spoiler to say those dreams don’t come to pass.) There’s a near-certain likelihood that our basketball-loving future president saw this doc while teaching at the University of Chicago in the ‘90s, before his meteoric political rise. Agee and Gates weren’t so lucky or talented or whatever quality it is that separates the occasional African-American star-in politics or sports-from the common fate. Hoop Dreams isn’t tragic, exactly, yet it illustrates the few choices available for so many young black men even today. (7 p.m. Fri., 5 p.m. Sat. & Sun.) BRIAN MILLER Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., Seattle, WA 98122 $6-$11 Saturday, December 20, 2014
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Hoop Dreams Almost three hours long, this great sports documentary from 1994 is poignant for a couple of reasons. First, it’s been restored and reissued in the same year that the doc Life Itself-about the late Roger Ebert, who championed Hoop Dreams-came out. Life Itself is on this year’s Oscar shortlist, and it’s a sentimental favorite to make the actual cut of five nominees-as Hoop Dreams failed to do, which was something of a scandal at the time. (Ebert, of course, led the outraged critics’ community.) Second, consider the subject matter. Filming over six years (!), James creates a sociological portrait of poor black teens grasping for a way out of the Chicago housing projects. High-school basketball may be the putative topic here, but James’ real focus is on the pressures, expectations, and wishful thinking of two players, Arthur Agee and William Gates, who somehow hope to transcend circumstance and reach the NBA like Michael Jordan. (It’s no spoiler to say those dreams don’t come to pass.) There’s a near-certain likelihood that our basketball-loving future president saw this doc while teaching at the University of Chicago in the ‘90s, before his meteoric political rise. Agee and Gates weren’t so lucky or talented or whatever quality it is that separates the occasional African-American star-in politics or sports-from the common fate. Hoop Dreams isn’t tragic, exactly, yet it illustrates the few choices available for so many young black men even today. (7 p.m. Fri., 5 p.m. Sat. & Sun.) BRIAN MILLER Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., Seattle, WA 98122 $6-$11 Sunday, December 21, 2014
