Synopsis: Filmed over four years, from the dilapidated cement courts of Senegal to upscale American prep schools, the film documents the personal journeys of four particularly tall West African Muslim teenage boys with NBA dreams. Recruited for both their physical and academic skills, Assane, Dethie, Byago and Aziz accept basketball scholarships to schools in the United States - and face the daunting challenges of alienation, a foreign language, American-style basketball and an unfamiliar American culture rife with African stereotypes. But with courage, humor, and remarkable resilience, they relentlessly pursue their dreams - to obtain an education and a shot at the NBA.
ELEVATE Byago Introduction from ELEVATE on Vimeo.
"The rest of the world views us as lazy," says a coach to teen basketball aspirants at the SEEDS Academy, a boarding school in Dakar, Senegal. "You have to be our ambassadors." The pressure is on, but none of the young subjects followed by first-time documentarian Anne Buford in "Elevate" know if th...
Read More »