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Licensor Information
New Line Home Entertainment
Two ordinary inner-city kids dare to dream the impossible - professional basketball glory - in this epic chronicle of hope and faith. Filmed over a five-year period, Hoop Dreams follows young Arthur Agee and William Gates as they navigate the complex, competitive world of scholastic athletics while striving to overcome the intense pressures of family life and the realities of their Chicago streets. The Criterion Collection is proud to present this landmark documentary chronicling two remarkable families who challenge the American dream.
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Release Information:
Technical Specifications
Format:
DVD
Disc:
DVD-9 (1 Disc)
Total: 1 Disc
Regions:
1 (DVD)
Aspect Ratio:
1.33:1
Audio Options:
English Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0
Resolution:
480i/59.94
Subtitles:
English
Supplements
Types of Supplements Included: Audio Commentary, Television Program, Music Video, Theatrical Trailer, Booklet
- Audio commentary with filmmakers Steve James, Frederick Marx, and Peter Gilbert
- Audio commentary with the film’s subjects, Arthur Agee and William Gates
- Collection of excerpts from Siskel & Ebert tracking the acclaim for Hoop Dreams
- Original 1994 music video for the film’s theme song
- Trailers
- A 40page booklet featuring new essays by cultural historian John Edgar Wideman and Sports Illustrated senior writer Alexander Wolff; Michael Wise's 2004 Washington Post follow-up article; biographies about the participants; and a dedication by the filmmakers
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Film
Picture
Audio
Supplements
Artwork
Release Credits
Producer: Abbey Lustgarten
Release Notes on Restoration
Hoop Dreams
One of the first features shot entirely on video and then transferred to 35mm film for its theatrical release, Hoop Dreams is a landmark in documentary, and feature film, history. Originally shot using various analog video formats-including professional Betacam, BetacamSP, and 3/4 inch—the nearly 250 hours of footage were then edited and mastered to D1 digital videotape. To achieve a cinematic effect, the filmmakers transferred the D1 master to 35mm film, reframing every shot to appear in the letterboxed 1.85:1 theatrical presentation. The nationwide acclaim for Hoop Dreams was instrumental in raising awareness of, and appreciation for, video filmmaking, for both independent documentary and, eventually, narrative features-leading the way for these works to be taken seriously alongside Hollywood films. This edition of Hoop Dreams returns to the filmmakers’ original camera framing of 1.33:1, with Filmlook image enhancement applied when initially mastered for television broadcast and home video. On standard and widescreen televisions, black bars may be visible on the left and right to maintain the proper screen format. To maintain optimal image quality through the compression process, the picture on this dual-layer DVD-9 was encoded at the highest-possible bit rate for the quantity of materials included.