Hoop Dreams

Hoop Dreams is a fairly popular documentary. For documentary film to resonate with a mainstream audience, it often makes narrative concessions that cater to audience expectations. bell hooks seems to make this introspection as well, it is a film about winning and losing. Growing up in America, competition for commodity is hard to escape. In this film, we see all characters struggling with competition for resources. The coaches want the top prospects, the kids want the cool clothes, the parents must make money to send their kids to school. I do think Hoop Dreams can be appreciated though, just for other purposes. It can provide a sense of nostalgia from the footage of the late 80s and early 90s and it can also provide a more realistic type of drama. Though it may fulfill a stereotype, the scene where the Agee family must use a payment plan for Arthur's failed time at St. Mary's is heart-wrenching and their joy with the outcome would be offensive if fictionally contrived.