Release Date: October 21st, 2011
DVD Release Date: February 14th, 2012
PG|1 hr 24 min
Plot Summary
Four exceptionally tall youths from Senegal come to the U.S. in the hope that eventually each will be selected for a position on a pro basketball team.
Director: Anne Buford
Genres: Documentary
Long on hopefulness but short on sobering realities, Elevate proves a compelling if superficial look at the arduous path traveled by Senegalese teens hoping to make it to America for a higher education and an NBA career. show more
Elevate works as a sympathetic portrait of cultural adjustment (learning in a nonnative language, sticking to Muslim dietary restrictions), but never adequately addresses the problems of what's essentially a neocolonialist system designed to shape impoverished Africans into first-world profit-makers. show more
One of the many beautiful things about this affecting, informative doc is the opportunity it gives to see the American college sports world through different eyes. show more
