Park City, UT — On Thursday, March 4 at 7 p.m. at the Park City Public Library, Sundance Institute will present a free screening of Hoop Dreams , the revolutionary documentary that explores issues of race, poverty, and education in modern America through the stories of two aspiring basketball players. As part of the monthly Sundance Institute Film Series, the screening is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a post-screening conversation with director Steve James.
Originally screening at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Documentary Filmmaking, Hoop Dreams is considered one of the most important documentaries of its time both for its breadth and its commercial success. Roger Ebert said of the film, “A film like Hoop Dreams is what the movies are for. It takes us, shakes us, and makes us think in new ways about the world around us.” Named the best film of the 1990s by Ebert in 2000, Hoop Dreams continues to have a lasting legacy and in 2007 was named the best documentary film in movie history by the International Documentary Association.
In the fifteen years since Hoop Dreams premiered, director Steve James went on to make documentaries about immigration, the troubled boy-turned-adult that James had once been a Big Brother to, a death row chaplin, the Iraq War, and a Fijian movie house. He has also made three dramatic films including Prefontaine, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 1997, Passing Glory , and Joe and Max, which was nominated for an ESPN Espy Award. He has had four films at the Sundance Film Festival and participated in the 1995 Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab. His recent film, No Crossover: The Trial of Alan Iverson is premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival next month.
The screening of Hoop Dreams is made possible by support from Principal Sponsor Zions Bank, Major Sponsors Summit County Recreation, Arts, and Parks Program, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks, with in-kind support from City Weekly, KRCL 90.9 FM Community Radio, Park City Film Series and Park City Marriott.
Images of the film can be found on http://press.sundance.org/press
Sundance Institute invites you to step inside the world of independent filmmaking each month with the Sundance Institute Film Series. Part screening, part discussion, we’ll showcase work supported by Sundance Institute and give you an opportunity to meet the filmmakers and discuss the films.
Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is a not-for-profit organization that fosters the development of original storytelling in film and theatre, and presents the annual Sundance Film Festival. Internationally recognized for its artistic development programs for directors, screenwriters, producers, film composers, playwrights and theatre artists, Sundance Institute has nurtured such projects as Angels in America, Spring Awakening, Boys Don’t Cry, Sin Nombre and Born into Brothels. www.sundance.org.
