Hoop Dreams was a simple, low-budget documentary about two high school basketball players in Chicago. But on the 15th anniversary of the film's release, Roger Ebert is hailing it as the great American documentary.
Ebert writes:
Today, fifteen years after I first saw it, I believe "Hoop Dreams" is the great American documentary. No other documentary has ever touched me more deeply. It was relevant then, and today, as inner city neighborhoods sink deeper into the despair of children murdering children, it is more relevant. It tells the stories of two 14-year-olds, Arthur Agee and William Gates, how they dreamed of stardom in the NBA, and how basketball changed their lives. Basketball, and this film.Ebert and Gene Siskel played an enormous role in ensuring that Hoop Dreams would reach the audience it deserved, and Ebert obviously takes a great deal of pride both in the film and in the fact that its subjects, Gates and Agee, have led successful lives even though they didn't achieve their dreams of becoming NBA players.
Hoop Dreams can be watched in full online. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it. There's never been a better sports movie.
