Screening

About Steve James

Year Released:

2014

Genres:

Lecture details are forthcoming. Steve James’ debut film Hoop Dreams won every major critics award in 1994 as well as a Peabody and Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in 1995. The film earned him the Directors Guild of America Award as “Best New Filmmaker” and Roger Ebert wrote “A film like Hoop Dreams is what the movies are for. It takes us, shakes us, and makes us think in new ways about the world around us. It gives us the impression of having touched life itself …” His past 20 years of filmmaking and 17 films have earned him numerous festival awards, critical acclaim, an Academy Award® nomination, distribution and a loyal audience, as he has continued to document life itself.

His affiliation with Kartemquin Films began in 1987 with the start of production of Hoop Dreams, for which he served as director, producer, and co-editor. He has since then become one of the most acclaimed documentary makers of his generation, with noted works being Stevie, The New Americans, The War Tapes, At the Death House Door, and The Interrupters.

In addition to the documentaries, his dramatic films include the theatrical feature Prefontaine (1997), which premiered at Sundance, and cable movies Passing Glory (1999) and Joe and Max (2002), which was nominated for an ESPN Espy Award.

His current projects are Life Itself, about the life of Roger Ebert, and Generation Food, a collaboration with author Raj Patel about solutions to fixing the broken global food system.