Latest in Steve James

Bill Walton feels things more intensely than just about any human being on the planet. The former basketball star – a legend in college and the pros – communes with nature at almost a cellular level, taking in the beauty of his beloved Oregon, for instance, with rapt pleasure. He can tell you perhaps…

Given the fragile state of world peace at the moment, it seems like a good time for the latest film from Hoop Dreams director Steve James, a piece of little-known history from the cold war that could potentially have devastating consequences today. Sadly, James’ Venice Film Festival out of competition title A Compassio…

Director Steve James has been making films for more than 30 years now, earning two Oscar nominations along the way: Best Editing for his landmark 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams, and Best Documentary Feature for the 2016 film Abacus: Small Enough to Jail. One of his foremost skills as a filmmaker is one seemingly anyone…

The city of Chicago does not lack for challenges — among them, an alarmingly high murder rate, longstanding racial divisions and a fractious relationship between police and minorities. That didn't stop a record number of candidates from running for mayor in 2019, including, for a time, incumbent Rahm Emanuel. The…

National Geographic Documentary Films has unveiled the first trailer for Oscar winner Steve James’ critically acclaimed docuseries City So Real, which paints a portrait of his hometown Chicago against the backdrop of its history-making 2019 mayoral election. City So Real will air over five nights, commercial free…

EXCLUSIVE: Participant has boarded Abacus, the drama that Justin Lin will direct based on a script by Kenneth Lin (Star Trek: Discovery, House of Cards) and James Schamus (Indignation, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Participant joins as financier, and producer alongside Lin’s Perfect Storm Entertainment. Lin is…

National Geographic has acquired the docuseries City So Real directed by two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Steve James (America to Me, Hoop Dreams) and his longtime producing partner Zak Piper (Life Itself, The Interrupters). The series paints a portrait of contemporary Chicago as it gives a multifaceted look into…

Documentary filmmaker Steve James didn't have far to travel to shoot his latest project, the Emmy-contending Starz docuseries America to Me. "The location was three blocks from my house," he tells Deadline. "I have never been closer to a subject." That location was Oak Park and River Forest High School [OPRF] west of…

Starz stirred the pot with its TCA panel devoted to the network’s first two documentary series, America to Me and Warriors of Liberty City. Subjects of both shows — a recent high school graduate named Charles Donalson III and former rapper turned football coach and community activist Luther Campbell — issued pointed…

Starz has unveiled a first look trailer at the Television Critics Assn. Summer 2018 Press Tour for its new docuseries Warriors of Liberty City, which explores how a crime ridden neighborhood in Miami has risen to become a pipeline to the National Football League. The docuseries follows a season with the Liberty City…

BREAKING: In the first major Sundance Film Festival episodic TV deal, Starz has made a worldwide rights deal for America To Me, a dramatic series by Hoop Dreams’ Steve James that premieres tonight in the Indie Episodic Program Section. The deal is in the $5 million range for a world rights license fee. Lionsgate…

Acclaimed filmmaker Steve James has built his reputation primarily on the strength of Chicago-oriented documentaries, among them Hoop Dreams (1994), The Interrupters (2011) and Life Itself (2014). But he finds himself in the Oscar race this year with a story that took him from the Second City to the first. In Abacus: S…