Documenting Basketball’s Big Picture : Dasal Banks’ Unique Vision Brings Special Touch That Takes His Films Above the Rim

The camera zooms in on a young player at the free-throw line, bouncing the ball once, twice, three times, then shooting.

“Basketball is more of a desire,” the man behind the camera says. “A desire to succeed not only on court but in life.”

Another player slumps toward the bench, glancing up at the scoreboard, knowing he is beaten.

“We’re not looking at the game as much as we are looking at the person. His reactions. His fervor.”

Over the past four years, Dasal Banks has filmed hours of footage of high school players in South-Central Los Angeles. His distinctive perspective of the game has been featured in two recent documentaries, the 1995 Fox program “Hardwood Dreams” and a PBS project called “L.A. Champions,” which airs tonight at 10 p.m. on KCET.

Through the lens of this North Hollywood cameraman, basketball is reduced to the slightest gestures, the most human element.

“Dasal’s spirit and his feeling . . . make him unusual,” said acclaimed filmmaker Robert Drew, who produced and directed tonight’s documentary. “Part of the reason I wanted to make this film is that I wanted to see empathetically what was going on. He empathizes.”

“L.A. Champions” tells the story of two young players: Maurice Robinson of Crenshaw High and Ricky Brown of Fremont. The hour-long documentary follows them through the 1992-93 season, into the playoffs and toward a possible confrontation in the City Section 4-A Division final.

But this is no mere highlight reel, not just a collection of jump shots and slam dunks.

“I wanted to look at the inner cities,” Drew said. “It occurred to me that, for players, the game is a way to escape reality. And when the game ends, that illuminates reality like nothing else.”

So Banks shot the action in High-8, often holding the camera by hand, the footage resembling home movies. Basketball becomes a metaphor for the dreams and fears of two youngsters at the doorstep of manhood.

Both see the game as a path to a college education and maybe even a big-dollar NBA contract. They see it as way out.

“Sports has for so long been a savior for African-American people,” Banks said. “It is something that can be a catalyst to enrich one’s life.”

Mixing sport and sociology was nothing new for Banks. “Hardwood Dreams” had made a similar connection. He had also worked on the 1996 Oscar-nominated documentary “Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream,” which focused on the racial hatred Aaron suffered while pursuing Babe Ruth’s major-league home run record. In fact, Banks got his start as a cameraman as a result of a civil rights issue.

In 1969, African-American students marched through Harvard University chanting and lighting bonfires to protest the lack of a black studies program. The students demanded to speak to African-American reporters. A local television station quickly hired Banks, an amateur photographer who was working as a hairstylist in Boston.

In the years that followed, he progressed from television news to industrial films, music videos and documentaries. Only recently has his camera focused on the sporting world.

The work can be technically demanding.

“You don’t get a second take of that big shot that just went in from 40 feet,” said Mike Tollin, who co-produced both “Hardwood Dreams” and the Aaron documentary. “There are a lot of really talented, adept cameraman who can’t follow a ball.”

Banks has displayed that ability. But for “L.A. Champions” something more was needed. To show the big picture, Drew wanted to get as close as possible to his subjects.

As one of three cameramen hired for the project, Banks was instructed to follow Robinson and Brown off the court, down the streets of their neighborhoods, into their living rooms.

“The game is a magnet that draws us in,” Banks said. “If you’re proficient at making a basket, I want to know how you are at home with your mom, how you are with your friends, how you are at school.”

Banks is a large man, bald and bearded, remarkable both for his physical appearance and his thoughtful nature. He becomes emotionally attached to the people he films.

In 1992, while following Morningside High for “Hardwood Dreams,” he was accompanying the team home from a Las Vegas tournament and noticed one of the players throwing rocks into a parking lot full of cars. He called the young man over and the rest of the team followed.

“I told them that the discipline they had on the basketball court had to be transferred into the rest of their lives,” Banks recalled.

Said Tollin: “He’s a very tall, arresting man but he’s got a gentle, wise way about him. He became like a father figure to these kids.”

A similar bond formed between Banks and one of his recent subjects, Maurice Robinson. Their relationship is evident in tonight’s show.

The camera stays close, just inches away, as the young player clowns with his friends in a sunny schoolyard.

“Working on these sports pieces was an awakening, an assurance,” the man behind the camera says. “Sports was not the only thing these young people were reaching for.”

The player grins broadly as he receives his high school diploma.

Through the lens of Banks, basketball widens to encompass the whole of a young man’s future.

“These young people strived,” Banks said. “They were going to make it through this neighborhood. They were going to make it through this life.”