The Dissolve:
In January 1994, a group of filmmakers from Chicago went to the Sundance Film Festival to accomplish the impossible, by selling a three-hour documentary about two inner-city teens hoping to get to the NBA. By the time they left, their lives had changed, and so had the way non-fiction filmmaking is perceived.
The movie still holds up as a powerful commentary on sports and the role it plays in the lives of too many “disadvantaged youths”.
But it’s also a wonderful film in and of itself. Even if you’re not a fan of documentaries, I’d encourage you to watch it.
Anyone setting out to watch this documentary would do well to also read bell hooks’s essay on the film, Neo-Colonial Fantasies of Conquest: Hoop Dreams. It provides an excellent counter reading to the film narrative and illustrates how filmmakers of privilege impose a form of colonialist rhetoric upon the subjects of the film, illustrating a type of institutionalized racism that would make viewers uncomfortable if confronted. The film says a lot about white filmmakers and white audiences, both of whom accept at face value some of the very problematic depictions within the documentary. hook’s essay would make an excellent discussion starter for anyone viewing this film for the first time. In fact it would be useful to those who have seen it before as a way to interrogate their own past and present viewings.