Hoop Dreams Documentary Celebrates 25th Anniversary with Re-Release & UK Tour - Hoopsfix.com

Hoop Dreams Documentary Celebrates 25th Anniversary with Re-Release & UK Tour

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, ‘Hoop Dreams’ the iconic documentary following two young basketball players with dreams of making it pro, will be embarking on a 22-stop tour across the UK to introduce the film to a new generation of filmmakers, students, and doc lovers.

Having not been screened in the UK for over twenty years, the film, which first exhibited at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival where it won the audience award for best documentary, was remastered in 2014 frame-by-frame and is now being brought back to a British audience by Kent based documentary film distributor Violet Pictures.

A number of the screenings will feature Q&As with various film critics, including yours truly on Sunday at Picturehouse Central in Piccadilly Circus (tickets here).

Widely considered one of the best documentaries of all time, it is the remarkable true story of two American dreamers; an intimate reflection of contemporary American inner-city culture, following two ordinary young men on the courts of the game they love.

Plucked from the streets and given the opportunity to attend a suburban prep school and play for a legendary high school coach, William Gates and Arthur Agee both soon discover that their dreams of NBA glory become obscured amid the intense pressures of academics, family life, economics, and athletic competitiveness.

“The International Documentary Association named it the best documentary of all time in a 2007 poll,” writes this Time piece chronicling the impact the film has had.

“The three-hour film, which follows two black teenagers in their wearied quest to make it to the NBA, sits in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry alongside Citizen Kane and The Godfather.

“Perhaps more importantly, the film ushered in a new wave in which documentarians, buoyed by newly interested financiers and the opportunity to screen in national theaters, imbued difficult topics with personal warmth, rigorous patience and narrative force. In many ways it is the forebear to the documentary boom happening right now, in which works like Leaving Neverland, Minding the Gap and Surviving R. Kelly are driving national conversations about justice, abuse and equality.”

Here is a full list of screenings, contact the cinema directly for tickets.

Screenings

11th October Hyde Park Picturehouse Leeds (preview)
24th October Queens Film Theatre Dublin (preview)
From 25th October ICA London
From 25th October Dochouse London + Q&A
25th October Hackney Picturehouse + Q&A
26th October Bernie Arts Centre London + Q&A
26th October Ritzy Picturehouse + Q&A
27th October Belmont Aberdeen
27th October Central Picturehouse + Q&A
29th October Cameo Edinburgh + Q&A
29th to 31st October Catford Mews London
30th October Filmhouse Edinburgh
30th October FACT Liverpool + Q&A
1st November Tyneside Cinema + Q&A
1st November Cultureplex Manchester
2nd November Northampton Filmhouse + Q&A
3rd November Crouch End Picturehouse + Q&A
6th November Irish Film Institute + Q&A
8th November Penarth Pier Pavilion
8th and 9th November Phoenix, Leicester
13th November Abbeygate Cinema Suffolk + Q&A
25th November Sheffield Showroom + Q&A

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