#Arthur Agee

[roseillith]

HOOP DREAMS  (1994) dir. STEVE JAMES

[chrisburke]

Watched "Hoop Dreams" tonight. One of the best documentaries I've seen. I'm not a big basketball fan, but this is about more than just a game. Highly, highly recommend. This one will stay with me! ⛹🏻‍♂️🏀

[moviemosaics]

Subject

directed by Camilla Hall and Jennifer Tiexiera, 2022

[koszmarnybudyn]

Its very funny to me that Arthur is canonicly a dilf

[dmitriene]

may i pretty please req for low honor arthur with his cutesygf like he's so ew but he's so fine,,, maybe he gives her all his love after he's been gone for agees???

dolly i loove writing your requests you always feed into my arthur delusions because i barely think about writing for him on daily basis, and then there's you ‹𝟹 hope you would love this writing!

cw: really small glimpses of smut, flowers language.

arthur morgan goes missing for months, you realize, and this is a completely ordinary lifestyle for him, being in a gang, at the same time on the run from law enforcement, because of which they constantly have to change the once serene location of their camp and travel all over the wild west in endless circles, unlike your comfortable, carefree life, a small house in a clearing near the nearest city, without the need to plunge into the dirt, blood and wildness of the cruel world around.

but you miss him, oh, you do, this roughened, silly man that ripped out your heart from your very chest with soiled, calloused hands and kept it to himself, and you could hate him if he did it against your will, yet you love him so immensely, so willingly, his crooked smiles, his scarred fingers and their shaky gentleness when they trace over graceful lines of your face, the smoky taste that lingers over his chapped lips when he kisses you ever so sweetly, all molten, crusting sugar that sticks between your teeth's to remind of him after.

to remind, because he always leaves, calls you his doll, his pretty, lilac rose, love at a first sight, his girlfriend, pronounces all these words so lightly, gravelly and without hesitation, pressing you so close that you begin to melt from the searing warmth and fondness of his touch, he takes you apart carefully and in fragile pieces, when you find yourself pressed against your soft sheets by his heavy, cloaking body, breathing into his kiss swollen lips scalding and erratic, parting your pliable, dampened thighs for the swollen weight of him to settle between, your fingers tangling up his mussed, hazel brown hair.

and then, gone again, took away with the cool wind and clacking sound of hooves, arthur is not pressed against your naked, curled body with tightening hands wrapped around you, doesn't kisses your temple with feathery brushes to wake you up, there's not a single note, only rumpled sheets that hold the last sparks of his warmth, blooms of love bruises on your body, and even through not for the first time, your eyes flutter and sting wet, clumping at your quivering eyelashes, as you can only whisper brittle hopes for his return.

this fateful day, it's bright outside, sunny and warm with light breeze and barely pickable scent of flowers that surround your crouching form, fingers ruffling in the soil, handling some thin stems with utter carefulness as you place them in the dug hole and sprinkle with ground in a circle, making sure they stay tall and proudly standing, as the howling wind that dances along ruffled hems of your dress, brings with it rustling, cautious steps, closer and closer to your side, pulsing through your heart with something so nervous, but familiar.

arthur is back when it's starts to get warm, when the blinding, yellowish rays of sun lay over the tip of his hat, shielding your wide open, glimmering gaze, he got older, rougher, with tired, purple lines beneath his squinting, bluish green eyes that flutter at you with something fond and apologetic, laid out so raw and unguarded, like a gaze of a beaten dog, with his now bearded cheeks burning red, accenting the deepened wrinkles and numerous moles that are so easily confused with small, blooming freckles, and you fly to your feet, along soil and falling seedlings, throwing yourself into his spreaded arms.

cruel, cruel man, laughing at your beading tears and weak, trembling slaps you give to his expanding, muscular chest, he's loud, hoarse, almost too joyful for someone who abandoned his girlfriend, but he'd kiss it better, wrap his scarred, rough fingers around your wrists to still your hands and cradle you close, with a warm palm against the back of your head, thumbing over your hair, with a whispered, cooing apologies right to your ear, rubbing his deformed knuckles down your rippling spine, promising in answer to your pleas that he'd never leave like that ever again.

arthur's bounty bigger, more dangerous people at his tail, and he got a new mark at his shoulder that healed with uneven, webbing flesh in a nasty scar, gleaming silver along many cuts slicing through his skin, each one a new story you learn under the warm gleam of the lamp in your room, tracing the full lines of his body with unsteady fingers, memorizing him back, pressed over the curve of your naked body as the day he left, but now, he's going to linger, he swore.

main masterlist. quidelines.

[byneddiedingo]

Humphrey Bogart, Madeleine Lebeau, and Leonid Kinskey in Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1943) 

Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall, Madeleine Lebeau, Dooley Wilson, Marcel Dalio, Joy Page, John Qualen, Leonid Kinskey, Curt Bois. Screenplay: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, based on a play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. Cinematography: Arthur Edeson. Art direction: Carl Jules Weyl. Film editing: Owen Marks. Music: Max Steiner. 

Even though she was never a major star, the death of Madeleine Lebeau in 2016, at the age of 92, was widely reported because she was the last surviving member of the cast of Casablanca. Lebeau played Yvonne, the Frenchwoman with whom Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) has been having an affair. When he breaks off their relationship coldly, she comes to his cafe on the arm of a German officer to spite him, but when the crowd starts singing the "Marseillaise" to drown out the Germans' singing of "Die Wacht am Rhein," Yvonne, tears streaming down her face, joins in. It's one of the many character vignettes that make Casablanca so entertaining. The film is filled with people who have nothing at all to do with the main plot: the choice Rick has to make whether to renew his old affair with Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) or let her leave Casablanca with her husband, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). But if the movie simply focused on that love triangle, would it be the classic that it appears today to be? What makes Casablanca such an enduring film, I think, is the texture of its screenplay, which won Oscars for Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch. And that texture is provided by the character players to whom somehow the writers managed to give abundant time. The result is such memorable bits as the one in which the waiter, Carl (S.Z. Sakall), sits down at a table with an elderly couple, the Leuchtags (Ilka Grüning and Ludwig Stössel), who have just received the visas they need to immigrate to the United States. Carl speaks German to them at first, but the Leuchtags insist that they should speak English so they will fit in when they reach America. Then Herr Leuchtag turns to his wife and asks what time it is:

Liebchen -- sweetness -- what watch? Ten watch. Such much?

Carl assures them, "You will get along beautiful in America." Has there ever been a movie more quotable? It is, of course, a great movie, largely because everyone took the time to weave such moments into its fabric. I don't claim perfection for it: The subservience of Sam to Rick, whom he calls "Mr. Rick" or "Boss," smacks of the racial attitudes of the era, and I wince when Ilsa refers to Sam as "the boy." (Dooley Wilson was in his 50s when the film was made.) James Agee, who was not as impressed with Casablanca as many of his contemporaries were, derided some of the expository dialogue, such as Ilsa's plea, "Oh, Victor, please don't go to the underground meeting tonight." But it continues to cast a spell that few other films have ever equaled.

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 11.27

Beer Birthdays

Felix Geiger (1834)

Michaele Fallon; Miss Rheingold 1947 (1920)

"Crazy" Dave Heist (1956)

Chris Flaskamp (1962)

Matt "Batman" Brynildson (1971)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Jimi Hendrix; rock guitarist (1942)

Bruce Lee; actor, martial artist (1940)

Thomas Malory; English writer (1405)

Johnny "Blood" McNally; Green Bay Packers HB (1903)

Alison Pill; actress (1985)

Famous Birthdays

Kirk Acevedo; actor (1971)

James Agee; writer, critic (1909)

James Avery; actor (1945)

William Bliss Baker; painter (1859)

Charles A. Beard; historian (1874)

Julius Benedict; composer (1804)

Kathryn Bigelow; director and screenwriter (1951)

Les Blank; film director (1935)

Samantha Bond; English actress (1961)

Mike Bordin; drummer (1962)

Randy Brecker; jazz trumpeter (1945)

Nicole Brossard; Canadian author and poet (1943)

Kelly Bundy; Christina Applegate's character on Married with Children (1972)

Anders Celsius; astronomer (1701)

Zoe Colletti; actress (2001)

Sharlto Copley; South African actor (1973)

Frederic Crowninshield; artist and author (1845)

L. Sprague de Camp; historian (1907)

Frank Dicksee; English painter and illustrator (1853)

Tsuguharu Foujita; Japanese–French painter (1886)

Robin Givens; actor (1964)

Jackie Greene; singer-songwriter (1980)

Kevin Henkes; writer & illustrator (1960)

Robert Livington; signer of the Declaration of Independence (1746)

Shy Love; adult actress (1978)

Joseph Mack; passenger bus inventor (1870)

John Maddox; Welsh chemist, physicist (1925)

Anatoly Maltsev; Russian mathematician (1909)

Konosuke Matsushita; Japanese businessman, Panasonic founder (1894)

David Merrick; Broadway show producer (1911)

Katherine Milhous; author & illustrator (1894)

Alec Newman; Scottish actor (1974)

Bill Nye; the science guy (1955)

Steve Oedekerk; comedian, actor, writer, film director (1961)

Lars Onsager; Norwegian-American chemist and physicist (1903)

Eddie Rabbitt; country singer, songwriter (1941)

Liviu Rebreanu; Romanian author & playwright (1885)

Michael Rispoli; actor (1960)

Connie Sawyer; actress (1912)

Charles Scott Sherrington; English physiologist, & pathologist (1857)

Gail Sheehy; writer (1937)

Jose Asuncion Silva; Argentine poet (1865)

Arthur Smith; English comedian, actor, and screenwriter (1954)

"Buffalo" Bob Smith; television show host (1917)

Michael A. Stackpole; game designer (1957)

Fisher Stevens; actor (1963)

Richard Stone; composer (1953)

Mika Tan; adult actress (1977)

Cornelius Vanderbilt II; businessman (1843)

Fredric Warburg; English author (1898)

J. Ernest Wilkins Jr.; nuclear scientist & mathematician (1923)

Cal Worthington; Automobile dealer & TV personality (1920)

[limotes786a]

Official Hoop Dreams Arthur Agee William Gates Graphic t shirt

The Official Hoop Dreams Arthur Agee William Gates Graphic t shirt to when Beethoven first realizes his deafness and he explains that Theresa would not love him were she to know. He is then shown Theresa’s reaction to his unexplained absence and he realizes that his deafness is the cause of all his problems. Fate explains that if she cures his deafness his music will suffer, as the Muses would not be heard as easily through the everyday sound. He thus withdraws his request. Beethoven is then shown that Theresa would have loved him forever and he becomes very sorrowful. But Fate then offers visions of the countless musicians of the future who would be influenced by Beethoven’s works. As one last, ultimate vision he is allowed to improvise with the musicians of the past and future who were inspired by him. Realizing that removing the hardships from his life would destroy his music, Beethoven informs Fate that he will not change any part of his life.

[lignes2frappe]

POURQUOI 30 ANS APRÈS « HOOP DREAMS » RESTE LE MEILLEUR DOCUMENTAIRE SUR LE BASKET ?

Voire le meilleur documentaire sur le sport tout court...

Aussi surprenant cela puisse paraître, Hoop Dreams ne devait au départ durer que 30 minutes.

Quand, en 1987, le réalisateur Steve James et du producteur Frederick Marx se mettent en tête d’aller filmer les playgrounds de Chicago, ils ne souhaitent alors consacrer que trois petites semaines à leur sujet.

Sur place, ils tombent cependant très vite sur un « recruteur local », un certain Earl Smith, qui leur présente deux adolescents de 14 ans bourrés de talent, Arthur Agee et William Gates. Le courant passe, et, une chose amenant une autre, James et Marx commencent à fréquenter leurs familles en dehors des courts.

De là, le projet prend une toute autre envergure. Persuadés d’avoir déniché tous les ingrédients un storytelling d’exception, James et Marx s’adjoignent les services du producteur Peter Gilbert afin d’augmenter sensiblement leur budget et le temps de leur séjour.

Et c’est ainsi que le 14 octobre 1994, cinq ans de tournage et 250 heures de rush plus tard (!), Hoop Dreams sort dans les salles de cinéma, changeant à jamais la vie des intéressés, la place accordée aux documentaires sportifs, mais, aussi et surtout, bouleversant de fond en comble la perception que se fait le grand public du processus de recrutement des athlètes professionnels.

De la sueur et des larmes

Long de presque 3 heures, Hoop Dreams suit les parcours croisés d’Arthur et William, deux surdoués de la balle orange qui rêvent les yeux grands ouverts de NBA. Sauf que bon, entre enquiller les paniers après l’école et décrocher un contrat pro, il y a un fossé – fossé dont chacun va prendre conscience à ses dépens de leur première saison au lycée à leur début à l’université.

[Sur 10 000 lycéens, seuls 3 seront un jour drafté par une franchise...]

Recrutés par le prestigieux Saint Joseph’s High School (célèbre pour avoir été l’alma mater du Bad Boy Isiah Thomas), Arthur et William tombent sur sous la coupe du coach Gene Pingatore. Dès lors, le basketball cesse d’être un jeu.

Vieux briscard, mi-père de substitution mi-chef de plantation, pour lui seule la victoire compte. Du genre « possédé » pour reprendre les mots de William, il s’emploie du mieux qu’il peut à tirer parti de ses jeunes recrues, qu’importe s’il lui faut les humilier ou les faire chanter.

Lorsqu’en junior William se blesse salement au genou, avant même qu’il ne soit rétabli à 100%, Pingatore le pousse à revenir au plus vite, contre l’avis des médecins. Plus craintif balle en main, William se blesse 48 heures plus tard et retourne derechef au bloc opératoire, la confiance dans les chaussettes.

Plus cruel encore, Arthur, qui chaque jour se lève à 5h30 du matin pour aller en cours, est tout bonnement exclu de Saint Joseph sitôt sa famille dans l'incapacité de payer ses frais de scolarité.

Intraitable, Pingatore, qui déjà ne croit plus en lui autant qu’avant (la faute à une croissance qui se fait attendre), laisse faire. Direction le lycée public, et déjà ses rêves « d’acheter une maison pour sa mère, une Cadillac pour son père et de mettre ses frères et ses sœurs bien » s’éloignent.

S’il est un peu facile de faire de Pingatore le grand méchant du film (amoureux sincère du basketball, il ne fait que se jouer d’un système autant que ce système se joue de lui), il est de ceux qui participent à traiter la jeunesse des ghettos comme de la chair à canon.

Ou comme il le résume à la toute fin, après que William et lui se soient faits des adieux aussi ternes que convenus : « Quand un joueur passe la porte dans un sens, un autre joueur passe la porte dans l’autre sens. Ce n’est pas plus compliqué que ça. »

Quelque chose de pourri au pays de l’Oncle Sam

La dure réalité des parquets n’est toutefois pas la seule à laquelle Arthur et William sont confrontés. Loin de là.

Purs produits de leur environnement, ils font face à tout ce qui ne va pas dans un ghetto noir américain moyen, à commencer par une précarité qui ne leur laisse aucun répit.

Drogues, criminalité, chômage, infrastructures délabrées, coupures d’électricité... l’un des passages les plus crève-cœur de Hoop Dreams est certainement celui où Sheila, la mère d’Arthur, lance désespérée : « Vous demandez-vous parfois comment je fais pour vivre ? ».

Sans emploi, séparée d’un mari qui à trop fumer la pipe à crack la battait, elle ne dispose à cet instant T que de 268 dollars par mois pour nourrir ses enfants...

Guère mieux loti, William sent la pression se faire de moins en moins saine, entre un grand frère Curtis, ancien espoir déchu qui ne vit plus qu’à travers lui, et une paternité qui arrive sans prévenir.

Sorte de film dans le film, cette plongée dans le quotidien des deux ados est d’autant plus pénible à regarder qu’Arthur et William voient leurs illusions s’envoler les unes après les autres.

À la merci de cadres blancs replets qui les traitent tels des numéros de série (voir cette scène lunaire où, sur un plateau télé, des reporters qui ont quatre fois leur âge discutent cigares à la main de leur avenir), ils sabordent leur seule autre porte de sortie, l’école. Menacés à tout instant de suspension pour cause de résultats scolaires à la ramasse, incapables de comprendre les enjeux, à chaque fois que le sujet est abordé, ils se murent dans le silence.

Fort heureusement, Hoop Dreams est entrecoupé çà et là de lueurs d’espoir, comme lorsque Sheila, la mère courage d’Arthur, qui, sans rien dire à personne, prend des cours du soir et décroche à la surprise générale un diplôme d’infirmière.

Petit bémol : là où la foule se presse chaque semaine pour applaudir son fils sur un terrain, lorsqu’elle reçoit son diplôme, la salle de réception est quasiment déserte, quand bien même c’est elle qui mérite le plus une standing ovation.

Hoop Dreams, plus que du basket

Filmé avec brio, les scènes de basketball illustrent à merveille cette ambivalence, avec d’une part, une caméra qui capture au plus près l’action sur le terrain, et de l’autre, une caméra qui se concentre sur les réactions des proches en tribune.

Aller-retour permanent entre le spectaculaire et l’intime, Hoop Dreams se sert du sport comme d’un cadre pour raconter une histoire beaucoup plus universelle : celle de deux adolescents au seuil de leur vie, qui, à la manière du jeune berger Santiago dans L’alchimiste de Paulo Coello, vont accomplir leur légende personnelle, réalisant chemin faisant que « c'qui compte c'est pas l'arrivée, c'est la quête ».

Plusieurs années après sa sortie, William déclarera d’ailleurs que « si Hoop Dream émeut tant, c’est que le script tient la route avec ou sans le basket. Se battre pour ses rêves, cela parle à tout le monde. ».

Et tant pis, si ni lui, ni Arthur n’ont un jour porté un uniforme NBA...

William et Arthur en 2014

30 ans après, que sont-ils devenus ?

Pourtant construit selon la très hollywoodienne trame « de zéro-à-héros », Hoop Dreams ne se termine en effet absolument pas sur une note triomphante.

Un simple texte blanc sur fond noir renseigne le spectateur qu’une blessure au pied a lourdement handicapé la carrière universitaire de William tandis qu’Arthur y croit encore.

La saison 1994/1995 marquera le chant du cygne pour nos deux aspirants pro, chacun affichant des stats largement insuffisantes pour un futur drafté (8,3 points de moyenne à 37,8% de réussite pour Arthur, 2,6 points de moyenne pour William).

Bonnes nouvelles toutefois, ils quitteront ensuite l’université diplôme en poche, puis, grâce au chèque de 200 000$ reçu pour leur participation à Hoop Dreams, quitteront le ghetto – sorti en salle, le documentaire a rencontré un vrai succès public, chose inédite pour ce format à l’époque.

Aujourd’hui respectivement pasteur et conférencier, tous deux grands-pères, William et Arthur se retrouvent régulièrement devant les caméras pour évoquer tout sourire leur passé commun, eux qui ne craignaient rien tant de sombrer dans l’oubli trente ans auparavant.

[« Quand les gens me disent ‘Ne m’oublie pas quand tu joueras en NBA’, j’ai envie de leur répondre ‘Ne m’oubliez pas non plus si je ne joue pas en NBA’ » aimait à répéter William.]

Le destin n’a cependant pas été aussi clément pour leurs entourages. Curtis, le frère de William, est mort par balles en 2001 pour une histoire de triangle amoureux. Bo, le père d’Arthur, a été tué en 2004 lors d’une rixe.

Hoop Dreams, ou le rêve américain sans filtre.

Publié initialement sur Basket Reverse le 10 octobre 2024.

[kenfitzpatrick]

Arthur Agee Jr. (Hoop Dreams)

[qweenofurheart]

so true!

also adding some pieces of media for anyone who wants to watch/learn more about stories in sports (there’s obviously more but these are ones i’ve seen)

Hoop Dreams (1994) Documentary about William Gates and Arthur Agee, two African-American teenagers both trying to make the NBA. Great cinematography.

The Fall that Changed Everything (2024) Video essay about snowboard cross Winter Olympian Lindsey Jacobellis. Gave me chills.

The Redeem Team (2022) (there is probably a free version online somewhere but it’s also on Netflix) Documentary about the U.S. Olympics Mens Basketball Team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in order to win the gold medal after failure four years ago. This is a pretty legendary documentary with some legendary players.

1: Life on the Limit (2013) Pretty comprehensive documentary about the history of F1. I like it because it highlights the history of the safety regulations improving over time.

feel free to add more :)

i love professional athletes bro they're like celebrities with fear

[ruleof3bobby]

WIN IT ALL (2017) Grade: C

The solid acting, a few funny scenes make it bearable. Very thin plot with a weak ending.

[90smovies]

Hoop Dreams

[moviemosaics]

Hoop Dreams

directed by Steve James, 1994

[deertiger]

In the Street

by Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb and James Agee

Collection of the Museum of Modern Art

[therunwayarchive]

Elise Agee at Arthur Arbesser, Spring 2019