1994: Steve James ('77)

Grounded in the Madison way of initiating change through education, film producer Steve James (’77) helped revitalize the documentary genre. Along the way, he won the Director’s Guild of America award, a Peabody award and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism award, Oscar nominations, and continuing national acclaim soon followed.

His breakthrough documentary Hoop Dreams (1994) won nearly every major critical award and brought James the MTV Movie Award for “Best New Filmmaker.” For his next documentary titled Stevie (2002), James retuned to Southern Illinois to reconnect with a boy he mentored 10 years earlier as a “Big Brother.” The film won festival awards at Sundance, Amsterdam, Yamagata and Philadelphia and also was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.

James recently appeared in These Amazing Shadows, a documentary investigating what makes the films listed in the National Film Registry the treasures of American cinema — a fitting topic for this distinguished filmmaker.