Mike Goes To Movies

Hoop Dreams (1994) I finally had the pleasure of being able to watch the acclaimed  Hoop Dreams  and I can tell you that it is one of the finest documentaries I have ever seen.  Hoop Dreams  is an engrossing story that follows two young boys, living with their families in an impoverished and predominantly black neighbourhood of Chicago, Illinois, who aspire to take their proficient basketball skills to the next level. The documentary was originally only intended to be a 30-minute short film made by PBS, however, based on the mutually (and coincidentally) extraordinarily interesting developments that ensued in both of the boys' lives, the documentary crew ended up following both of them for close to eight years, compiling more than 250 hours of raw footage. The end result is a three hour, fascinating look into the worlds of teenage aspiration, youth basketball, the American private and public school system, and, foremost, the hard lives of African Americans in So...