‘Hardwood Dreams’ Is a Gym-Dandy for Filmgoers

The stars of this movie never had to audition. They didn’t have to memorize lines or hire an agent or worry about “becoming” their character.

They only had to be themselves. Easy enough. Lights, camera, tip-off!

“Hardwood Dreams,” a 47-minute documentary, is the story of the starting five of Morningside High’s basketball team during the 1992-93 season. Interestingly, few basketball scenes are shown; the film’s focus is on the lives of the players away from the gym.

In the fall of 1992, Brian Robbins and Mike Tollin had the idea of spending a season making a television special chronicling a tradition-filled Southland inner-city high school basketball team. They pitched the idea to the Fox Network and were given the go-ahead.

That was the easy part. Then they had to find a school willing to allow them access to classes, practices, games, players, coaches and administrators.

Robbins and Tollin were considering schools such as Crenshaw and Manual Arts when they stumbled across Morningside. The drab Inglewood campus seemed perfect and they knew that the Monarchs were the defending State Division III champions.

They met with Principal Liza Daniels, who cautiously endorsed granting the access.

“It was a gamble,” Daniels said. “But I thought it was important for the community to see another side of Morningside High. We’re a school that has been neglected. People don’t know the energy generated by the positive things that go on.”

The team and its coach, Carl Franklin, were enthusiastic about the potential exposure and agreed wholeheartedly to having their lives documented.

A meeting was set up for Robbins, a former actor in ABC’s “Head of the Class,” and Tollin, the film’s director, to meet the school board, which had the final say.

“We had to convince the school board,” Robbins said. “They watched some of the other shows we had done. We made an impassioned pitch and they had faith.”

The movie begins with the start of the season. Narrator Wesley Snipes introduces the five players: Stais Boseman, Sean Harris, Corey Saffold, Donminic Ellison and Dwight Curry. They are all seniors.

Each player is separately shown in situations: during classes; games; motivational speeches by NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown, former Notre Dame basketball coach Digger Phelps and then-Laker guard Byron Scott; private interviews, and just walking around campus. Teachers, administrators and coaches are interviewed about the five players. Everyone seems candid.

Boseman, the Monarchs’ best player, is portrayed as an indolent student by teachers and teammates. Needing at least a 700 score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test to play college basketball as a freshman, he has failed the exam twice.

When asked if Boseman can possibly pass the test on his third and final try, Boseman’s tutor says, “I can teach someone who is brain dead to pass the SAT.”

Toward the end of the season and after years of not seeing his son, Boseman’s father shockingly comes to a game. After the game they have an awkward meeting before parting with an uncomfortable, yet touching hug.

The movie hides nothing.

Ellison, a guard, is shown leaving the school after being suspended for drinking. Later he complains to a Morningside counselor how the school treats him as “the school alcoholic.”

In a disturbing scene, forward Curry watches his teammates hug their parents after a game. He acknowledges how difficult it is not to have any parents to support him.

Harris, the point guard, was a candidate for class valedictorian. But the week of the state championship game in Oakland he was among three juveniles arrested by police on suspicion of carrying a loaded firearm and a concealed firearm in a car. Harris was disqualified as valedictorian, suspended from the team and forced to miss the final game. (Morningside lost to Palo Alto in the final by 20 points.)

Saffold was the team’s center and leader, and his interviews are frequently used in the film. Surprisingly, Saffold and Boseman fight in the locker room after a loss.

Saffold said he enjoyed the film and realized it had to be a truthful account of the team.

“It should have been more basketball-oriented, but you have to show the good and the bad,” he said.

Daniels, however, felt the movie depicted the school disproportionately in a bad light. During a classroom scene, gunshots were heard outside the building. The camera later filmed police at the school and bullet holes in a building.

“They really capitalized on some of the negativism,” Daniels said. “We had a shooting that day and no one was seriously hurt. I didn’t want a sensationalist-type event at the expense of our students.”

Franklin, who wore a microphone during games, said the film crew, usually three or four people, never became a distraction.

“It wasn’t as annoying as people might think,” he said. “I really wasn’t (uncomfortable). But it’s a challenge to make sure you don’t say the wrong thing.”

Robbins, who produced the movie, said he never met any interference from the team.

“If they ever told us to turn off the camera or leave, we would have,” Robbins said. “This was not a tabloid investigative report. We captured life.”

The film, which ends on graduation day, was not aired on Fox. Robert Licata, Fox’s senior vice president of publicity, would not discuss why the documentary was rejected.

Robbins called the decision “strange,” but he was encouraged by the three awards “Hardwood Dreams” has won: the Crystal Heart from the Heartland Film Festival, the National Black Programming Consortium Prize and the Cine Golden Eagle Award.

Last week, the film had two screenings at the Nuart Theater in West Los Angeles. Soon, “Hardcourt Dreams” will be one of three American films shown at the St. Petersburg International Film Festival in Russia.

At the premiere in Los Angeles last year, the film raised $28,246 for the Inglewood School District, most of which went to the Morningside athletic department.

Robbins, who said he grew attached to the players, said it was an eye-opening experience.

“You hear about kids in these neighborhoods and you find out they’re the same all over,” Robbins said. “They have the same hopes and dreams. Everybody wants the same thing. Maybe it’s just a little tougher to get there.”

Where They Are Now

Stais Boseman: USC guard.

Sean Harris: San Diego State, not playing basketball.

Corey Stafford: Was a redshirt as a freshman at Oklahoma.

Dwight Curry: Didn’t play last season at El Camino College. Enrolled at L.A. Trade Tech. Expected to play for Trade Tech this season.

Dominic Ellison: Guard at Washington State.

Carl Franklin: Coach at Morningside.