Hoops, Hopes & Dreams, a short documentary from actor/producer Jesse Williams, (Grey’s Anatomy), and director Glenn Kaino (With Drawn Arms), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Thursday, January 23rd, to a packed house. The film is the untold story of iconic civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his all-star team of activists who took to the basketball courts as a way to reach and rally young voters. They won the hearts and votes of these communities and created a grass roots strategy of meeting voters where they. They film explores the use of basketball in community building and politics today with interviews from NBA player Jerry West; NBA players association director C.J. McCollum; college basketball player and Obama personal aide Reginald L. Love, and former ESPN sports reporter, Jemele Hill, name a few.
Highlighting how King stepped out from behind the podium and joined young people on their turf, the basketball court, the documentary shows King “do whatever is necessary” approach to activism.
Ambassador Andrew Young, who was very close to Dr. King, attended the Sundance World premiere of the documentary. Young accompanied King many times on these basketball court sessions and recounts his stories in the project. Director Glenn Kaino became interested in producing a documentary about the topic when he heard Ambassador Young reminisce about it at a gala he attended and immediately knew he had to tell this story.
Jesse Williams, basketball fan and coach of his daughter’s basketball team, joined Kaino as producing partner on the project which used animation to tell the story since there are, unfortunately, no known photos of King and Young from those court sessions.
Williams told The Wrap at Sundance, “This didn’t happen through the internet or through tweets. It happened through human beings connecting to one another, meeting people where they are and speaking their language, finding out what they really care about. This was the work being done in between the monologues.”
RELATED: Sundance Review: ‘Summer of Soul,’ Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Directorial Debut
Director/Producer: Glenn Kaino
Executive Produced by: Kevin Iwashina
Producers: Jesse Williams, Michael Latt, Alexys Feaster, Afshin Shahidi
Subjects: Ambassador Andrew Young, Jemele Hill, Michael Strautmanis, Reginald L. Love, Jerry West
Loading…