A feature-length, cinema vérité documentary, Basketball Heaven provides a poetic portrait of a Southern Black community that has survived everything from catastrophic flooding to a racist education system, all while reigning supreme in basketball. The film weaves together filmmaker Resita Cox’s healing journey through poetry and time traveling, confronting a scarred childhood marred by absent parents fighting drug addictions, and poverty, while highlighting the community teachers and coaches who made it possible for her to succeed nonetheless. Those same mentors are still caring for the community and are the focal point of the film. Basketball Heaven serves as a gorgeous reminder of the interconnectedness of our individual journeys; how we are required to heal ourselves in order to help heal our collective. It showcases how communal love and care are at the heart of this little town’s sports legacy, and how community is the reason Black folks have managed to survive, and win, time and time again.

 

Director | Resita Cox