Hoop Dreams Viewing Guide
dir. Steve James, Fred Marx, Peter Gilbert (1994)
Name:
Period:
Over the next three days, we will watch segments of the incredible documentary, Hoop Dreams, which follows
the careers of two young basketball players who have their hearts set on the NBA. The film is three hours long,
so we won’t have time to watch all of it. Be sure to check that you are watching the correct sections, since I’ve
cropped the film down for you. You will turn in this viewing guide at the end of class each day.
Friday 11/21 Do now:
Pre-film Questions
1. How could baseball have offered Troy Maxon a ticket out of poverty? Why didn’t it?
2. How did his inability to play major league baseball fuel his dissatisfaction with life?
Turn over when starting film. ---->
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For each clip, take notes on What I Saw, What I Heard, and What I Thought in addition to answering the
questions. You should fill up most of each of the three boxes. You may pause for a few short minutes after each
clip to have writing time.
Clip 1: The Birth of the Dream (0:00 - 13:10 pause at FRESHMAN YEAR)
What I Saw…
How do the visuals go along with the
meaning of the film?
What I Heard…
What are the most powerful lines?
What I Thought…
How does this remind you of Fences?
images, facial expressions, physical
movements, props, lighting, camera
movements, special effects, symbols?
Visual Notes:
words or phrases, sound effects, vocal
inflection, music?
What is the same as Fences?
What is different?
Sound Notes:
Connections:
Questions for this portion of the film:
1. Who is Earl Smith and what does he do on weekends? How do you think he benefits from it?
2. Describe what Arthur Agee’s family must feel like in Pingatore’s office. How might race play into this?
3. In what ways might Gene Pingatore benefit from making good basketball players. What’s in it for him? Come up with as many
answers as possible.
4. Describe the background music when Arthur plays with Isaiah Thomas. What literary device does this remind you of? What does
that mean about Arthur’s future?
5. According to Pingatore, what’s the difference between Arthur Agee and William Gates? Which one is most like Troy? Bono?
6. How does Curtis remind you of Troy?
7. “Most likely, I would have made it to the pros, you know? But, you know, once I had my son . . . I think the talent is gonna be
passed on. . . . I just want Arthur to have more, to have a better life than what I had,” Arthur’s dad Bo says. How is Bo significantly
different from Troy in terms of how he thinks of his son’s future?
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Clip 2: Initial Faults and Successes (13:10 - 23:40 end at SOPHOMORE YEAR intertitle)
DVD Chapter 5
What I Saw…
How do the visuals go along with the
meaning of the film?
What I Heard…
What are the most powerful lines?
What I Thought…
How does this remind you of Fences?
images, facial expressions, physical
movements, props, lighting, camera
movements, special effects, symbols?
Visual Notes:
words or phrases, sound effects, vocal
inflection, music?
What is the same as Fences?
What is different?
Sound Notes:
Connections:
Questions for this portion of the film:
1. What qualities of the school are Arthur and William unfamiliar with? What
2. How does Arthur feel like he doesn’t fit in at the school? How is his home culture different than the school culture?
3. What do you notice about the race of the cheering crowds at St. Joseph’s? What do you notice about the race of the basketball
team? What does this make you think of in history?
4. Describe the way Coach Pingatore talks to his players on the court. What do you think of how he treats these young men?
5. Why does the director include close-up shots of Curtis in the crowd?
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Clip 3: Two Ways of Dealing with Generational Poverty (23:41 - 41:10 pause at JUNIOR YEAR)
DVD Chapter 7
What I Saw…
Visual Notes:
What I Heard…
Sound Notes:
What I Thought…
Connections to Fences:
Questions for this portion of the film:
1. How does generational poverty, based in institutionalized racism, impact William and Arthur’s lives?
2. Who is Patricia Wier? What is strange about her role in William’s life?
3. What financial difficulties is the Agee family facing? Why might Bo have gotten fired?
4. Arthur’s mother Sheila explains her frustrations: “Whatever scout that they have come out to these different neighborhoods and
scout out these little basketball players and get ‘em to come to their school and offer them these scholarships Then, once they get out
there, the story is totally different.” How does this situation relate to the history of race in America?
5. What effect does the filmmaker achieve by showing a close-up of the cardboard cutout of Isaiah Thomas with sad jazz music in the
background?
6. What topic is Arthur “learning about” in his history class? Why is it problematic that he doesn’t know the answer to the teacher’s
question?
7. Why was Curtis an unsuccessful basketball player? What tragic flaw might Curtis have had?
8. Whose nickname is “Tuss”? Why does Arthur write it on his shoes? In what ways does this small action show Arthur’s weakness?
9. What is sad about Arthur playing basketball in his bedroom with his younger brother? How does the filmmaker use sound to draw
attention to this irony?
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Day 2
Monday 11/24 Do now:
2. What does Troy’s dream of playing baseball do?
Use the language of the poem to answer. Why?
1. Annotate the following poem.
“Harlem”
by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
At this point in the film, William has suffered a knee injury that has kept him off the courts for some time.
Clip 4: Dealing with Setbacks (1:01:24 – 1:15:12 pause at “She’s meaning whatever she said.”)
DVD Chapter 17
What I Saw…
Visual Notes:
What I Heard…
Sound Notes:
What I Thought…
Connections to Fences:
Questions for this portion of the film:
1. Do you think Coach Pingatore’s decision to let William play after his injury is a good one?
2. How does William’s family feel about the fact that the coach put him in to play?
3. How does it seem like Arthur is embarrassed of his father at church?
4. Whose fault is it that William re-injures his knee as a junior? What does William’s brother-in-law say this shows about “the
system”?
5. How does William’s relationship with his father remind you of Cory?
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Skip ahead to . . .
Clip 5: Diverging Paths (1:20:55 - 1:38:11 stop at Pre-Season Tournament subtitle)
DVD Chapter 20
What I Saw…
Visual Notes:
What I Heard…
Sound Notes:
What I Thought…
Connections to Fences:
Questions for this portion of the film:
1. While William is at the Nike camp, what is Arthur doing?
2. “Here I am, always trying to play this team ball . . . but everybody feel they gotta do they own little thing here,” William says.
How is playing “team ball” a strength? A weakness? How does this differ from Troy?
3. What message does film-maker Spike Lee have for William and the other young men at the all-American summer basketball
camp? (“You have to realize that nobody cares about you . . .”) [Ms. Garvoille thinks this is the most important 10 seconds of the
film!]
4. What phrases and images does the filmmaker catch to draw attention to the buying and selling of bodies? What does this remind
you of?
5. What do you notice about the music when William injures his knee again?
6. What images and sounds does the filmmaker use to show us Arthur’s school?
7. As William’s mother reads college letters, what is Curtis doing in the living room? Why is this significant?
8. How does Curtis fit the model of the tragic hero?
9. How do the Marquette recruiters manipulate reality/make things up in order to convince William to buy into their program?
10. When William is celebrating signing with Marquette, what is Arthur celebrating?
11. What is Arthur doing alone in his room? What kind of music is playing in the background? Why?
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Skip ahead to . . .
Clip 6: Success for the Agees, Failure for the Gates (1:48:53 – 2:03:37 end at “Good luck.”)
DVD Chapter 27
What I Saw…
Visual Notes:
What I Heard…
Sound Notes:
What I Thought…
Connections to Fences:
Questions for this portion of the film:
1. What is sad about Sheila’s graduation from her nursing program?
2. What do you notice about Arthur’s dad during the game?
3. What does Earl Smith have “a bitter taste in his mouth” about? When Smith is talking about having second-thoughts when he sees
“the net results of what happened with the youngsters,” what might he be talking about? How has his work increased racial tension in
Arthur’s life?
4. What mistake has William made that led him to be benched at the beginning of the game?
5. What is the effect of the close-ups on newspaper clippings of William’s basketball highlights at Saint Joe’s?
6. How does Curtis deal with William’s failure after the game?
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Day 3
Tuesday 11/25 Do now:
Fences, Hoop Dreams, and Great Expectations, our next text, are all concerned with how adults interfere with
and live through the lives of children. Fill out the chart below.
Adult in his life
Arthur
Why they want to help
William
Adult in his life
Why they want to help
Clip 7: Arthur’s Semi-Final Win & States (2:09:00 – 2:23:05 end at fade to black)
a few minutes into DVD Chapter 32
What I Saw…
How do the visuals go along with the
meaning of the film?
What I Heard…
What are the most powerful lines?
What I Thought…
How does this or does this not fit the
bildungsroman model?
images, facial expressions, physical
movements, props, lighting, camera
movements, special effects, symbols?
Visual Notes:
words or phrases, sound effects, vocal
inflection, music?
What opinions are you forming?
What questions do you have?
Sound Notes:
Connections:
Questions for this portion of the film:
1. How does Sheila remind you of Rose in her support of Arthur?
2. “Twenty-one years later I have a chance to get a championship through him,” Bo says. How is this different than Troy’s approach
to his own son’s sports career?
3. What music do you hear as the Marshall bus leaves for the state championship game? Why was this music chosen?
4. How does this section of the film illustrate perepeteia, or the tragic reversal of events?
5. Describe the Agees conversation as they walk around the University of Illinois campus.
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Clip 8: “Dream” School Recruiting Visit (2:23:03 - 2:38:38 end at “Or dead.”)
What I Saw…
Visual Notes:
What I Heard…
Sound Notes:
What I Thought…
Connections:
Questions for this portion of the film:
1. What is the “Basketball House”? Describe what it looks like and who lives in it. What’s problematic about it?
2. What is meaningful about the location of the basketball game between Arthur and Bo?
3. What does William realize about Coach Pingatore?
3. How is Pingatore’s past haunting him?
4. How is William’s realization about Pingatore similar to Cory’s in Fences?
5. Do you think Coach Pingatore is a good man? Why or why not?
6. “Well, another one walks out the door, and other one comes in the door. That’s what it’s all about.” What is it all about for
Pingatore, do you think?
7. How does Arthur feel about his neighborhood?
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Skip ahead to . . .
Clip 9: Reflections (2:44:17 – end 2:47)
DVD Chapter 39
What I Saw…
Visual Notes:
What I Heard…
Sound Notes:
What I Thought…
Connections to Fences:
Questions for this portion of the film:
1. Have Arthur and William’s dreams changed? Why?
2. Describe the music in the background over these closing interviews.
3. Where do you think William will find the most happiness in life?
4. What is William’s final line of the film about? Why is that significant to end the documentary on?
Post-Film Questions
1. Neither Arthur nor William ever played for the NBA; they never made it to their “hoop dreams.” Does that mean they are
unsuccessful? Why or why not?
2. Are there any tragic heroes in this documentary?
3. If you were to draw William and Arthur’s barrier fences, what would they look like? Create to symbolic fence drawings below.
Arthur’s fence
William’s fence
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