Minnesota is mostly known for its crazy cold weather, 10,000 lakes, and hockey, not necessarily in that order.
Gabe Hostetler grew up in Minnesota, playing high school and college basketball before he set out west to be a filmmaker. Whenever asked, he often defended his home state when questioned about Minnesota hoops.
It took about three years, but Hostetler is back home with his new documentary “Basketball State: The Land of 10,000 Hoops.” It premiered October 20 at the Twin Cities Film Festival in St. Louis Park.
The 2017 Robbinsdale Armstrong graduate said he always wanted to make films from a very young age. His film pays tribute to many of the state’s trailblazers over the years, both boys and girls, men and women, Black and white, AAU, high school and pros. Hostetler played against many of these groundbreakers during his growing-up years.
He used archival footage and on-screen interviews from players and coaches squeezed into about an hour and half. “If I could, I would include every hoopster in Minnesota, but then it would be a 100-hour documentary,” said Hostetler after the screening.
He told the MSR, “I’ve been working on this film for three years, and I think I’m a perfectionist, so I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted it to be as good as it can be. I was afraid if anyone is going to care about this.”
The audience’s raving reactions after seeing his film told him that they do care.
During a post-screening Q&A, Hostetler pointed out, “This is just the start of the story. It is part of a four-episode series that I’m working on. I felt that Minnesota is an underrated state [for basketball], and it’s a story that needed to be told.”
P.J. Hill is prominently featured in “Basketball State” along with three of his sisters, and are the Jones brothers — current NBAers Tre and Tyus and older brother Jadee, who starred in high school and college before becoming a coach and basketball operations manager.
“We featured the Hill family and the Jones family, but there’s a ton of other families in this state where you can just see that love for the game passed down,” continued the filmmaker.
“I trained Gabe when he was a little kid, helping him build that love for basketball,” admitted Hill, who played at South High, then North High, and later played and graduated from Ohio State before playing overseas.
His sister Tayler set high school scoring records, also attended Ohio State, and was a top WNBA draft pick. Younger sister Jade is a senior at St. Thomas.
Now a local businessman, “My dad had a vision for us,” added P.J. Hill. “Six of my siblings have played Division I basketball. We got a couple more coming. It’s not without hard work.”
Hostetler said he hopes to get “Basketball State” to as many viewers as possible, and streaming is the next step. “I can’t give an exact answer… My ultimate goal is to get this on a streaming platform… I just want this story to be on a platform.
“I’m gonna keep working until I figure that out,” he said.
Hostetler reiterated, “I’m just thankful that the state and the community has been getting behind it. People like yourself that are seeing the story and appreciating it, the legacy that we’re trying to build with Minnesota.
“I think I just want people to be inspired by this, whether they’re a basketball player or not.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.