CHICAGO — With a bit of modern movie-making magic, Kartemquin Films has breathed new life into the groundbreaking documentary film, “Hoop Dreams” — the story of two Chicago boys struggling against long odds in hopes of making it to the NBA.
The digitally remastered version of the 1994 film directed by Steve James, which won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary that year, offers more than just a clearer picture of footage that shows high school basketball stars Arthur Agee and William Gates coming of age in Chicago.
It’s a reminder that, 20 years later, some things haven’t changed very much for kids growing up in poor parts of Chicago struggling with gangs, guns and drugs.
“Chicago has always had the violent tendencies that I grew up with,” said Agee, now 42 years old. “During the time that was filmed, all the gangs and drugs, the whole stigma that went with it, still devastates our community right now. 'Hoop Dreams' is a one-of-a-kind film, and it’s timeless.”
On Saturday and Tuesday, Kartemquin Films plans to screen the new version of “Hoop Dreams” at the Gene Siskel Film Center to celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary. Agee is set to join the filmmakers — James, Peter Gilbert and Gordon Quinn — at both screenings.
While talking with Agee — whose namesake foundation mentors kids living with some of the same day-to-day realities he grew up with: a father on drugs; the pressure to join gangs; and the hopeless feeling that there’s no way out — I got the sense that some of what makes “Hoop Dreams” timeless is that hopelessness is tough to overcome.
“There are so many similarities between how I was back then and how kids are now," Agee said. "This new generation is just left out there, man. Their elders, like mine, are on drugs, tearing up families, and that leaves kids to get raised by their grandmothers and other family members. You got kids dropping like flies out there. It’s like everything repeats itself.”
About three times a week, Agee meets with Chicago students to talk about his experience as the cameras' subject in “Hoop Dreams” and all the things he’s been through and learned since the camera stopped rolling.
“The movie experience got me to where I am," he said. "It shaped my value of education. It put education over basketball. You see me in the movie, and I’m like every other kid, I put more effort into sports than school. But once you graduate and are a freshman on a college campus it changes your perception.”
Agee and Gates never made it to the NBA. Gates was a pastor in Cabrini-Green and now lives in Texas. His son, William Gates Jr., plays basketball for Furman University.
Agee helped co-produce the 2007 “Hoop Dreams” follow-up “Hoop Reality,” which starred Chicago high school player Patrick Beverly, now on the Houston Rockets. He also had small acting roles in commercials and movies, including a speaking part in “Passing Glory,” produced by Magic Johnson and Quincy Jones.
Agee, who now lives in suburban Franklin Park, said his post-basketball experience is part of the message he sends to kids who can only focus on how their dream — playing professional sports or becoming a rap star, for instance — is an all-or-nothing proposition that ends badly for most people.
“I tell principals that you just can’t have a teacher show 'Hoop Dreams' in their class and expect kids to get it without me there,” Agee said. “The model I have to reach kids is to hear my message straight from me. They want to be rappers. Well, that’s great. But you can have that dream to be the next Lil Wayne and have something else.”
Growing up, Agee idolized NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas, who grew up in his neighborhood.
“I watched Isiah do it, and no one could tell me that I couldn’t follow the same template. No one,” Agee said. “Then my eyes got opened to the world outside the neighborhood. I realized my life was bigger than basketball. I want kids who don’t have a movie showing their life story to be exposed to that way of thinking. Chasing your hoop dreams is about having discipline. It’s about character. It’s about staying away from the wrong element. It’s about finding a passion beyond basketball — or whatever you're determined to do — so you can control your own destiny.”
Learning that even a boy from the ‘hood can grow up to control his own destiny, Agee said, is a powerful lesson the “Hoop Dreams” experience taught him — and changed his life for the better.
I asked Agee how to best pass that message on to kids who don’t want to hear it.
“We have to keep drilling it in their heads. It’s got to be an everyday thing like brushing your teeth,” he said. “The kids I work with I try do something to reaffirm that it boils down to survival. If you want health and wealth then you need to have the understanding of what your next move will be if your hoop dreams don’t work out. I’ve always used the movie as a tool to do that.”
For more information on how to get tickets to the "Hoop Dreams" screening click here.
Arthur Agee is scheduled to appear at Leaders, 672 N. Wells St., on Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m. where 20th Anniversary "Hoop Dreams" T-shirts will be on sale.
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