Hoop Dreams: the Outtakes
Joravsky, a Reader staff writer, was hired by Kartemquin Educational Films to write the book version of Hoop Dreams. The book was commissioned by the Turner Broadcasting System, whose Fine Line Features subsidiary distributes Kartemquin’s movie.
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“By the second part the filmmakers were much more involved with the families. They had a much stronger sense of what they were doing, and I think they had some money. To me, the outrage wasn’t so much that they didn’t get the best-documentary nomination but that they didn’t get the best-picture nomination. Because this was a movie.
Joravsky says he isn’t sure whether to call Gates and Agee actors or performers. Their roles were themselves. Their performance lay in acting as if the camera were not there without forgetting for an instant that it was.
Writing the book, Joravsky wanted to open up characters the movie had abbreviated. One was Curtis Gates, in his day a prep superstar, in the movie a once-was laying his dreams on his younger brother. Joravsky was determined to give Curtis his due. “They caught this guy at a stage of his life where he was a little down. He’s not like that anymore. He’s a very confident, productive man.
New Yorkers Take Over Chicago
No, he said flatly. “One of the things we do, we always preserve the corporate culture of our units. Synergy is not a word we subscribe to here at K-III.”
