The director of “The Queen of Basketball,” which tells the story of women’s basketball pioneer Lucy Harris, told reporters Sunday evening he hopes the documentary’s Oscar win will spark more attention on women in sports and more films about them.
“God I hope so. I hope so,” director Ben Proudfoot said backstage at the Dolby Theatre after accepting the prize for best documentary short subject. “Lucy is a representative of generations of women, particularly women of color, whose story has not been told, whose stories have not been celebrated. And, you know, I think people are starting to get wise to the fact that there’s a whole lot of people and a lot of stories that they don’t know. It’s not that it didn’t happen, it’s that those stories haven’t been told.
“So yes, I hope many more films get made about the history of women athletes and women athletes of color. And I hope that they’re short documentaries.”
He noted that his film — which was produced in part by NBA stars Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen Curry — is available for free on YouTube, and he said he hopes future films on the subject are also made widely available.
Hall-of-famer Harris, the first woman ever drafted by an NBA team, scored the first basket in Olympic women’s basketball history. She also helped lead Delta State University to three straight national championships.
“This is a really important story,” Proudfoot said. “She’s an amazing storyteller. You can watch the film for free on YouTube — probably one of the very few Oscar-nominated films you can watch for free. It’s 20 minutes long and YouTube is very accessible. So I hope everybody watches the story of Lucy Harris from her mouth. I know it means a lot to me and to her family.”
Proudfoot said he didn’t want the film’s Oscar win to be overshadowed by vocal debate over the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to present eight awards — including documentary short — before the actual telecast.
“This is Lucy Harris’ Academy Award,” he said. “She told her story. I helped her. I gave her an assist. But it’s her story. And you know details of how a television award show is produced can create a lot of grumpy people. But at the end of the day, we didn’t make the film for that, we made the film to honor Lucy Harris. And I was squarely focused on that.
“And I will continue to be and I’ll also continue to voice my concerns on behalf of the short documentary (industry) that there’s no perceived difference in importance. … There’s nothing less or small, just because it’s short. And I think Lucy Harris’s family would agree.”