The Peabody Awards

TCM's prime time lineup tonight honors movies that won the Peabody Award, an award that recognizes meritorious public service by the media. I always thought it was an award for TV, but apparently they have awarded some movies too. The one of the movies that I've seen on tonight's schedule is Hoop Dreams at 10:00 PM, although it's probably been a good 15 years since I've watched the movie.

For those who haven't seen it, it's a documentary looking at William Gates and Arthur Agee. These two young men are basketball players from the Chicago housing projects, both of whom have incredible talent. Enough talent, in fact, that the people who can open doors for them by ultimately getting them a college scholarship are interested, although they of course are just as much interested in how much revenue adolescent basketball players can make for them. Apparently not only is college basketball big business, so is high school basketball in some areas. It's not an easy ride for the two men or their families, who go through all sorts of trials and tribulations on their way to... well, I won't say exactly where the journey ends up. The two documentarians spent years with the basketball players, eventually editing all of the material down to a three-hour story that never feels like it's three hours long, that's how gripping it is.