Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah is exec-producing Lenny Cooke’s feature documentary about the former basketball phenom called Lenny Cooke.

The film highlights the rise and fall of the high school athlete who was once thought to be the next Magic Johnson, only to lose it all before any of it became a reality.

In the early 2000s, Cooke was the top basketball prospect in the country. However, poor decisions and injuries sidelined him for good.

You can read all about it in my review of the film HERE, published after I saw it at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it made its world premiere earlier this week.

The 90-minute film is directed by Benny Safdie and Joshua Safdie. 

It was made with incredible access to Lenny’s story, from his run-down home in Bushwick, Brooklyn, to the New Jersey suburbs where he spent his high school career, through to the present day, with the friends and family who shared in his dreams and aspirations. 

Joakim Noah (son of former professional tennis player Yannick Noah) played with Lenny Cooke, who was two years his senior, for the AAU team The Panthers in 1999.No word yet on next screenings after Tribeca, or a release. 

Until then, watch a new clip from the film below (you’ll find the film’s poster, courtesy of Film School Rejects, underneath): 

Lenny Cooke: Nearly Man on Nowness.com

 

>via: http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/tribeca-2013-tough-life-lessons-for-lenny-cooke-in-new-clip-from-documentary