In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the short documentary “Hoops, Hopes & Dreams” released on Hulu yesterday, detailing the ways King and former president Barack Obama used basketball as a means of bolstering their movements.
“Hoops, Hopes & Dreams” is a short watch at about 20 minutes, but it’s certainly a valuable viewing experience. Directed by artist Glenn Kaino, the documentary tells a moving story of hope, community and of course: basketball.
The documentary opens with a young man walking at night to a basketball court, spliced with images and videos of King’s nonviolent protests and scenes of police brutality. The segment is narrated by activist Andrew Young, who worked closely with King during the civil rights movement.
“I’ve always thought of myself as a point guard,” Young said. “I mean, that my job was to get the ball and get it to the open man to make the shot. And that was true with Martin Luther King.”
Young takes the time to acknowledge the nature of police brutality in the 1960s and earlier. He describes the weapons that police officers used, such as guns, clubs and tear gas, and the violence neighborhoods would see. According to Young, incidents of police brutality could happen multiple times a month in a neighborhood, but without digital records, they were easily swept under the rug.
One of the documentary’s greatest strengths is its determination to remain relevant to today’s political landscape. The 2020 murder of George Floyd and the recent murder of Nicole Renee Good at the hands of an Immigration Customs and Enforcement officer are both notable modern examples of brutality at the hands of law enforcement officers, and the documentary invites comparison between the current reality and the world King lived in.
Many documentaries and other retellings of King’s work for the civil rights movement ignore how the problems of the 1960s still exist in the 2020s, almost sixty years after King’s murder. “Hoops, Hopes & Dreams” doesn’t shy away from this truth.
Alongside Young, the documentary collects interviews from journalist Jemele Hill, Michael Strautmanis and former Duke University basketball star Reggie Love — who both worked closely with Obama during his presidential campaigns — and NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West, best known as the inspiration for the NBA logo.
The documentary frames the stories of King and Obama through the usage of basketball as a means of human connection. Young and other members of the movement would play basketball with kids at local courts to earn their respect and find ways to relate to them, before telling them about the civil rights movement.
“Considering what an excellent strategist that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was, of course it makes all the sense in the world that he would use basketball as a way to not just relate, but a way to invite people into a movement that was life-changing,” Hill said.
Basketball is a consistent through line between King’s civil rights movement and Obama’s presidential campaign. Strautmanis even met Obama while playing basketball, having lost multiple games to a clever left-handed player before realizing who he had been losing to: the future U.S. president.
Obama went on to use basketball to earn votes during his campaign. According to Love, Obama started a basketball game during primary day in Iowa and won the state that night. When Obama and his team lost New Hampshire, Obama and his team decided to play basketball during every state’s primary day to try and connect with local voters.
“It gives him sort of a commonality,” Hill said. “Like, a lot of people in the world love to play basketball and it’s like ‘oh, I have something in common with President Barack Obama.’”
Another major draw of the documentary is Kaino’s incredible choice to animate the basketball games the interviewees describe, instead of using clips of real games. All of the basketball games in the documentary are 3D animated, stylized to look like a hand drawn comic in dark ink. King and Obama are highlighted in yellow and blue, respectively.
The basketball scenes are soundtracked with hip hop music, which increases energy as the animated figures move dynamically across the screen. Altogether, despite their animated appearance, these sections come across as authentic and lively, painting a picture of King and Obama as real people and not just figureheads of legend.
“Hoops, Hopes & Dreams” has secured a special place in the world of Martin Luther King Jr. memorials. The unique decision to frame King’s movement around basketball and to compare his tactics with Obama makes the story feel fresh while also bringing some lesser-known details to light. For those interested in learning a bit more about our nation’s history in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, “Hoops, Hopes & Dreams” is a good place to start.