Peter Gilbert

Peter Gilbert was a respected director of photography working out of Chicago with many credits on music videos, PBS specials and series when he teamed with documentarians Steve James and Frederick Marx to handle the cinematography on a project about ghetto youths pursuing their dreams of playing professional basketball. They shot more than 250 hours worth of video which was eventually edited down to the three hour "Hoop Dreams" (1994), praised as one of the best films of the year. Despite its acclaim, appearance on virtually every Ten Best List and numerous awards from critics groups, the feature failed to win an Oscar nomination in the documentary category. (Unused footage had also been seen in the companion TV program "Higher Goals" which aired on PBS in 1992.)