8 Inspirational Sports Documentaries That Could Change Your Life

6. Hoop Dreams

Year: 1994

Director: Steve James

Hoop Dreams is the archetypal rags to riches inspirational story (or at least it sets out to be), taking in the tales of two inner city kids - William Gates and Arthur Agee - and focusing heavily on the impact of race, class and education as they seek their dreams of playing in the NBA.

The film has rightly earned its reputation as one of the finest documentaries of all time. It excels not because it tells the story of the success of two dreamers - in actual fact it doesn't as neither made it - but because of the frankness of its central story and how well it ties into the pressures facing the pair of kids at its heart.

It is ultimately proof that you don't need a positive outcome to be resilient.