Independent Lens
Bike Vessel
In this portrait of familial love, Donnie Seals Sr. undergoes a transformation after several medical crises and, at age 70, embarks on a long-distance cycling trip with his son.
Basketball Heaven
Basketball Heaven reveals the love, struggle, and triumph found in Kinston, North Carolina—a town that has produced the greatest number of NBA players in the world.
- Length
- 90 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Open Call
Producer/Director
Resita Cox
Resita Cox is an Emmy Award-winning documentary film director/producer. Raised in the South, her films center Southern, Black communities and are observational and impact driven. She holds an MFA from Northwestern University and was recently named an Esteemed Artist by the City of Chicago and a 2024 Rockwood Documentary Leaders Fellow.
- Other ITVS Films
- Bike Vessel
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The Film
Kinston, North Carolina, is the single greatest producer of NBA players in the world. Players from their high school’s varsity boys’ team are 63 times more likely to make it to the NBA than anywhere else in the United States, according to ESPN. In Kinston, basketball is more than a game; it is a lifeline, and for some families, their only means of escaping difficult economic circumstances. Basketball Heaven showcases the communal love at the heart of this sports legacy and how community has helped Black people survive and thrive throughout time.
Filmmaker Resita Cox journeys home to Kinston, confronting a childhood marked by absent parents, their drug addictions, and poverty. She revisits the teachers and coaches who supported her, including town matriarch Ms. Felecia Solomon. Ms. Solomon transformed her own childhood trauma into a lifelong career in education, nurturing countless young people. Solomon spent years as the principal of Rochelle Middle School—Kinston High’s feeder school—which enjoyed a 14-year winning stretch in the past and regularly sells out games. Ms. Solomon hired acclaimed coach Jesse Miller to head Rochelle’s boys’ basketball and football teams.
Solomon and Miller demonstrate the commitment it takes to provide in a low-income community, but they are uncertain who will succeed them after retirement. Basketball Heaven is a portrait of a southern Black community that has withstood trials—from devastating flooding to an education system marked by racial inequality—and reigned supreme in basketball.
