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Home Court
Home Court traces the ascent of Ashley Chea, a basketball prodigy whose life intensifies amid recruitment, injury, and triumph throughout her high school career.
- Series
- Independent Lens
- Premiere Date
- March 24, 2025
- Length
- 90 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Open Call
Director/Producer
Erica Tanamachi
Erica Tanamachi is an MFA Cinema graduate of San Francisco State University. Her recent film, Winn, attained a PBS distribution deal. She was creative producer for Motherload (2019), which won Best International Documentary from Hollywood North Film Awards. Erica also won Best Documentary from The Documentary Foundation for her short, Living Poets.
Producer
Jenn Lee Smith
Jenn Lee Smith is a queer filmmaker and supporter of underrepresented narrative and documentary films such as Mija (2022) and Pray Away (2021). She was a part of Re-Present Media's Re-Take Oakland program and is the founder of Bewilder Films, a production company dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices.
- Other ITVS Films
- We Arrive With Fire | Ne-kah Nuue'm Mehl Mech
Producer
Brandon Soun
Brandon Soun is an emerging Cambodian American filmmaker and an Asian American Studies graduate of UCLA. His work highlights the Cambodian diaspora in America. Brandon was a 2022 Armed-With-A-Camera Fellow and his short, Conversations at the Register (2022), won the “Audience Choice Award” at the 2023 Seattle Asian American Film Festival.
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The Film
Ashley Chea is a Cambodian American basketball phenom. Home Court, filmed over three years, is a coming-of-age story that relays the highs and lows of her immigrant family, surmounting racial and class differences, as well as personal trials that include a devastating knee injury. Despite the intensity of basketball recruiting, Ashley’s humor shines through and her natural talent inspires the support of those around her.
The film opens in Ashley’s sophomore year of high school. She shuttles between her home in a lower-income neighborhood in Los Angeles and her private school, Flintridge Prep, while traveling to youth basketball tournaments and visiting colleges around the country. Ashley’s parents work long hours at their donut shop, so her coach, Jayme Kiyomura Chan, steps in where they cannot, taking Ashley to doctor visits and helping her get her driver’s permit.
With the pressure of being one of the top basketball recruits in the country, tensions rise as Ashley decides between college offers. Her dad favors nearby UC Berkeley, but she chooses Princeton University, feeling more at home with the coaches and players there. During her senior year, Ashley leads her basketball team to victory in an upset against their rivals, with her family, friends, and Princeton’s head coach cheering her on from the sidelines. The film culminates in the bittersweet moments of Ashley leaving for college with her family.
