Hoop It Up

By chicago_chris in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 19, 2004 5:40PM

With all the planes flying just overhead, Chicagoist has deduced that either we're being attacked (orange alert! ...er, red alert?) or it's Air and Water Show weekend. Thankfully, it's the latter. Well, "thankfully" in that there will be tons of people in Chicagoist's neighborhood over the next few days and parking will be a mess. We need to escape from Old Town, fast, and Doc Films fortunately has a solution. This Saturday they'll be playing Hoop Dreams, a quintessential Chicago film. We call it quintessential because this classic documentary provides a touching, in-depth portrait of our city's low-income residents and public school system. And besides all of the personal drama in the lives of its subjects, there's plenty of good basketball.

This is one of those few movies with a nearly three-hour running time that can really hold your attention. Made by Steve James, a local documentarian, Hoop Dreams was hailed by both Siskel and Ebert as the best film of the 1994, and Ebert subsequently went on to give it "best of the decade" honors. If Gene Siskel had made it 2000, he might have done the same. As with any movie, catching it on the big screen is another experience entirely, so if you missed Hoop Dreams the first time around – Chicagoist can't believe it's already been a full ten years! – you owe it to yourself to see it this weekend. And avoid those damn Blue Angels.