Hoop Dreams

Hoop Dreams (1994) is Steve James' landmark documentary, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Stitched together from five years of filming, its near-three-hour runtime trails two Chicago teenagers for whom a ball and a hoop look like the only readable ticket out of the inner city.

Every school morning, Arthur Agee and William Gates ride 90 minutes out to suburban St. Joseph High School — the program that once produced Isiah Thomas and where college scouts come hunting future pros. The camera stays put when the dream stalls: injuries, tuition the families can't quite cover, transfers, and the weight of coaches and parents who have bet everything on these boys. Because James kept rolling for so long, you watch the kids physically grow up between cuts.

What began as a short television piece grew into one of the defining nonfiction films of the decade. Roger Ebert ranked it the best movie of the 1990s, and the outcry when it was left off the Oscar documentary shortlist pushed the Academy to rewrite its voting rules. This is patient, honest filmmaking less about basketball than about what hope actually costs. Stream Hoop Dreams (1994) online on iFILM.