Critics Decry Snub Of `Hoop Dreams'

Filmmakers and critics cried foul Tuesday after "Hoop Dreams" was denied an Oscar nomination for best documentary by a motion-picture academy that has snubbed some of the most acclaimed documentaries of the past decade.

The omission of the inner-city basketball saga - following slights of "Roger and Me," "The Thin Blue Line" and "The Civil War" - raised fresh criticism that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' documentary committee is out of touch.

"It's a miscarriage of justice and fairness," said TV film critic Roger Ebert. " `Hoop Dreams' is obviously the best documentary America has produced in years."

"Hoop Dreams" follows Chicago high school stars Arthur Agee and William Gates for 4 1/2 years as they pursue dreams of playing pro ball. Both now are college seniors - Agee at Arkansas State, Gates at Marquette - and play for their schools.

Gates, at Marquette practice this week, said the news hit him almost like a basketball loss, "but it's on a different level."

"I've been playing basketball all my life and this here was a once in a lifetime opportunity," he told Milwaukee station WITI-TV. "This may never happen again for me so it's probably one of the biggest disappointments of my life that it didn't get nominated."

"Hoop Dreams" made most critics' 10 best lists and was said by some - including Ebert and Gene Siskel, the most influential television critics - to be the best film of the year.

The same day the film was snubbed in Hollywood, back in Chicago a high school and a basketball coach portrayed in "Hoop Dreams" settled their lawsuit against the movie makers.

The Cook County Circuit Court lawsuit alleged that the movie makers had misrepresented the nature of the film as not-for-profit and said it was not an accurate reflection of St. Joseph High School or its staff or students.

As part of the agreement with the school and coach Gene Pingatore, the filmmakers will establish an academic scholarship fund at the school and at Marshall High School, spokesmen for both sides said Tuesday.

"Hoop Dreams" was launched in 1986 as a short film about street basketball, but rapidly became more. Filmmakers Steve James, Fred Marx and Peter Gilbert followed Agee and Gates, taping more than 250 hours in gyms, classrooms and the players' homes.

It took more than two years to edit, and the final length of nearly three hours might be part of the reason it wasn't nominated, according to one member of the nominating committee.

It was nominated for an Oscar for best editing.

The five nominated documentary features were "Maya Lin," "Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter," "`D-Day Remembered," "Freedom on My Mind" and "A Great Day in Harlem."

"Hoop Dreams" already has won the Golden Globe for best documentary, and the equivalent awards from the New York Film Critics, National Society of Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

"I have yet to hear of any of these movies that were nominated," said Michael Barker, whose well-reviewed Sony Classics release "Crumb" also was overlooked.

That doesn't necessarily mean the films nominated aren't worthy. Seattle Times movie reviewer John Hartl calls "Freedom on My Mind" an excellent film; it played the Seattle Film Festival last spring and returned for a theatrical run in Seattle last fall.

But those left out of the Oscar documentary category were particularly indignant that the chairwoman of the committee nominating films saw her own obscure documentary win a nomination. Academy officials said Freida Lee Mock was prohibited from voting for her "Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision," but filmmakers said the conflict was too profound.

"They've been very careful to say that they avoid a conflict of interest," said Ira Deutchman, whose Fine Line Features distributed "Hoop Dreams" and pushed the movie for a best-picture nomination. "But this is a group of people who spend a lot of time together."

For most categories except best picture, academy voters are divided into branches. Costume designers nominate costume designers, editors pick editors, and so on.

There is no documentary branch, however. Forty-seven mostly veteran academy members - actors, producers, directors - form a committee that nominates documentary features in a secret ballot, said committee vice chairman Walter Shenson.

"We looked at 64 movies this year," Shenson said. "The public and the press don't see as many movies as we do. We thought there were five better films . . . Democracy is painful - it's not always easy."

He said Mock was banned from committee meetings and screenings. "We are scrupulous."

Several filmmakers said "Hoop Dreams," the cartoonist R. Crumb's movie "Crumb" and "Martha & Ethel," a biography of two nannies, should have been on the list.

"To see the documentary committee ignore these films is very puzzling. I don't see the criteria," said Sony's Barker.

It's a familiar refrain.

Filmmakers can rattle off a slew of highly regarded documentaries left off the Academy Award honor roll in recent years: "Paris is Burning," "Brother's Keeper," "A Brief History of Time," "Sherman's March" and "28 Up," among many others.