Steve James is best known as the award-winning director, producer and co-editor of Hoop Dreams, the widely acclaimed documentary that followed nearly five years in the lives of two inner-city basketball players. Named to more than 100 "10 Best Movies of the Year" lists, James' film received the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award, and he was honored with the Directors Guild Award and MTV Movie Award for Best New Filmmaker. James was also named NATO/ShoWest Documentary Filmmaker of the Year and Artist of the Year by The Chicago Tribune. James also received an Academy Award® nomination for Editing and won the A.C.E. Editing Award.
James wrote and directed his first feature film, Prefontaine, starring Jared Leto. He also produced with his partner, Peter Gilbert, Team of Broken Dreams, which received two Sports Emmy® nominations; produced and co-directed Higher Goals, which was nominated for an Emmy® Award; and Grassroots Chicago, which received several awards, including the Bronze medal from the New York Festival of Festivals. James is currently directing Stevie, a documentary on a poor young man from rural Illinois for whom James was a Big Brother, and executive-producing with Gilbert The New Americans, a PBS documentary on immigration.
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Universally known for his 13-year career in the National Basketball Association, Earvin "Magic" Johnson has redefined himself as a businessman focused on revitalizing neglected communities and providing quality entertainment and services. Johnson is founder and CEO of Magic Johnson Enterprises (MJE). He heads several MJE divisions, including Johnson Development Corporation, which is best known for developing Magic Johnson Theatres in long-neglected communities; Magic Johnson Entertainment; Magic Johnson Productions; Magic Johnson Music; and Magic Johnson Management Group. The Magic Johnson Foundation, a separate non-profit organization that focuses on improving and addressing the health, educational and social needs of inner-city youth and organizations, was formed in 1991 after Johnson retired from the Los Angeles Lakers.
In addition, Johnson serves as co-chair of Vice President Al Gore's White House Community Empowerment Board; and Ambassador of Peace for the United Nations (UN). Johnson works with the Make a Wish Foundation, the United Negro College Fund, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Starlight Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Urban League and the American Cancer Society Foundation. Johnson hosted a one-hour network special, A Conversation With Magic, commentated the 1996 Summer Olympic Games and hosted The Magic Hour. Johnson earned five NBA championship rings, led the Los Angeles Lakers to nine appearances in the NBA finals and was a member of the original Dream Team, winning a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He also received three MVP awards and played in 12 All-Star Games. Johnson earned his nickname "Magic" from Michigan sportswriter Fred Stabley, Jr. when Johnson captured a state high school championship for Everett High School in Lansing, Michigan.
Quincy Jones' career has earned acclaim as a composer, record producer, artist, film producer, arranger, conducter, instrumentalist, TV producer, record company executive, magazine founder and multi-media entrepreneur. Currently celebrating more than 50 years performing and being involved with music, Jones has won 26 Grammy® Awards, the Recording Academy's Trustees Award and the Grammy® Living Legend Award. He also holds the record for the most Grammy® nominations with a total of 77. He is an Emmy® Award winner and seven-time Oscar® nominee, and was recently honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with its Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Jones broke into feature filmmaking as co-producer of the 1985 motion picture The Color Purple, which was nominated for 11 Academy Awards®. He has composed 33 major motion picture scores, earned worldwide acclaim as producer of the historic "We are the World" recording and produced the best-selling album in the history of the recording industry, Michael Jackson's Thriller. His landmark 1989 album Back On The Block was named Album of the Year at the 1990 Grammy® Awards. His 1993 recording of the critically acclaimed Miles and Quincy Live at Montreux garnered a Grammy® Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance. His last recording Q's Jook Joint, which showcased the unique talents of an eclectic group of singers and musicians, received seven Grammy® nominations. His next recording, From Q With Love, is due out this February.
In addition to being the force behind his own Qwest Records, Jones executive-produced the An American Reunion concert at the Lincoln Memorial. In 1993, Jones and David Salzman merged their companies to form QDE and entered into magazine publishing with VIBE, later purchasing SPIN Magazine. In the feature film area, QDE produced Steel, starring Shaquille O'Neal. For television, Jones executive-produced The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, In The House and Mad TV. In 1996, QDE executive-produced the most-watched awards show in the world, The 68th Annual Academy Awards. In 1994, Jones led a group of businessmen to form Qwest Broadcasting, one of the largest minority-owned broadcasting companies in the United States, which Jones serves as chairman and CEO.
David A. Rosemont is president of Rosemont Productions International, Ltd., a prolific television and motion picture production company. He most recently executive-produced TNT's Purgatory, starring Sam Shepard, Randy Quaid and Eric Roberts; Carriers, based on Patrick Lynch's best-selling novel; and the telefilm Host. Rosemont's extensive production credits also include Hallmark Hall of Fame productions of Shadow of a Doubt and The Tenth Man, starring Anthony Hopkins and Kristin Scott Thomas; The Haunting of Helen Walker, based on The Turn of the Screw; West Side Waltz; The Long Road Home; Trick of the Eye; My Africa; From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler, starring Lauren Bacall; and What Love Sees, the award-winning short film for which he is currently producing a sequel. For TNT, he also executive-produced Riders of the Purple Sage, starring Ed Harris and Amy Madigan, and the Civil War drama Ironclads.
Actor/writer Harold Sylvester is a New Orleans, Louisiana native and a graduate of St. Augustine High School. Upon graduating from high school, Sylvester became the first African-American student to receive an athletic scholarship from Tulane University, where he majored in Theater and Psychology, graduating in 1972. Sylvester's big break came when he was cast as the lead in Part 2 Sounder, a sequel to the groundbreaking film Sounder. Familiar to television audiences from his starring role on Married ...With Children, Sylvester is a veteran actor whose credits include 17 feature films, including An Officer and a Gentleman and Corrina, Corrina; and more than 300 television appearances. Sylvester's additional writing credits include Fast Girls for PolyGram Films.
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