When does sport become much more than sport? When one discovers the effect a game has on those around it. What began as a celebration of former Harlem Globetrotter Mel Davis by his son Hubert became something very different – a story of choices made and impact those decisions have on a life. The finished product, a documentary called “Hardwood,” was nominated for a 2004 Academy Award and airs Aug. 16 on PBS. Recently, Hubert Davis, the director of the film, discussed his very personal project.
Anthony Cotton: I want to congratulate you on the nomination, but it’s almost like, “Look what he had to go through to get to that point.”
Hubert Davis: Right. It’s definitely the whole thing was pretty bittersweet for my family and myself. But what the nomination did was kind of validate all that stuff we had gone through. In filming it and sharing it, it was very personal, but at the same time, the nomination felt like it was a celebration of sharing the story as well. That made it all worth it.
AC: Did your dad go to the Oscars with you?
HD: Yeah. My dad, my mom, my brother and his wife, as well as my wife. The six of us all got to go down the red carpet together; that was pretty exciting. It really is a cliché, that just being nominated is the honor, but it really is. We found out we were shortlisted; eight films were being considered for the five nominations. That would be the more tragic thing, to be almost there and not get nominated.
AC: I’m curious about the genesis of “Hardwood.” At one point, you said before you could tell your story, you had to tell his. Were you looking to tell your story and realized how much family had played in your life?
HD: It was really the reverse. I had set out to tell a sports story. My dad had a really interesting life and made such a good subject – growing up in the slums of Chicago, born to a teenaged mom and his escape through basketball and then traveling around the world. I thought he was a real self-made man. But people would ask me why I was telling the story, and once that came up, the idea of me giving my perspective and talking about my relationship with him, it opened the whole family dynamic up. Because in order to tell my story, I had to tell my mom’s story, my mom and dad and their relationship, and in that, his relationship with his first family and my brother and his mom in Chicago. That opened the gates and made me see that this wasn’t just my dad’s story, it was my family’s story.
AC: At one point your dad talks about sports being a metaphor for life; the way sport is generally looked at by the public is probably very different from how you see it, isn’t it?
HD: Definitely. For me, I think for my brother and I, there’s the side of my dad, playing for the Globetrotters and teaching basketball in the community, that was what we saw, me in Vancouver and him in Chicago, in the newspapers. But we always felt there was a story underneath that, the effect that traveling on the road like he did has on the family. The perception that other kids had when they heard my dad played for the Globetrotters was very different from the life I led. They thought, “Isn’t that great? He’s traveling around the world.” But the impact of that on family life can be very negative.
AC: It wasn’t like he was Meadowlark Lemon or Curly Neal, but clearly, he was a celebrity.
HD: My story is different from my brother’s. He was there when dad was at his height – traveling and flying the family over to Paris – there were all sorts of things attached with that. By the time my dad came up with me, he was done playing and into that other phase of his life, living pretty simply in comparison. For me, it was more of a local celebrity, him being a former Globetrotter. There’s a magic associated with them; everyone you talk to has a story of remembering when they were younger and would go to see the Globetrotters. That’s still prevalent; the Globetrotters aren’t as popular or well-known as they were then, but for an older generation, they still hold this kind of mystique.
AC: You were 12 when he returned to Canada from Chicago to be with you and your mom. You said if he hadn’t, your life would have taken a turn, probably for the worse. Why?
HD: It was just going into those high school years. It’s funny, my brother and I have kind of the opposite memory of it – my dad left my brother and that life when he was 12 and then he came running back into my life when I was 12. I realized then that I really needed that father figure who was going to push me and have a sense of discipline and not let me just get away with anything. The relationships with mothers and sons, at least for me, is that she was just happy for me in whatever I did. He really pushed me to want to achieve more and have more courage to face life and do different things. He pushed me to be better.
AC: When did you finally meet your brother?
HD: That same year, when I was 12, my parents got married and he came up with my grandmother to Vancouver. He had written me a letter a year before, but that was the first time we met.
AC: There’s a part in the film where he’s asking questions of his mother instead of you.
HD: Because we shot in Vancouver first and I had done the interviews with my mom, those were questions that I legitimately didn’t know the answers to, and I wasn’t sure where it was going to go when I was talking to her. I felt like that same dynamic needed to be there for my brother and his mom; No. 1, it was very courageous for her to come forward and tell her part of the story – she didn’t have to and she had nothing to gain from the situation – but she did because I had asked her to and more importantly, my brother had asked her to. For him it was a kind of healing process – it was this therapy that we were practicing on camera. Him asking the questions was a way to make the situation more intimate for them – it wasn’t right for me to be asking those questions.
AC: What are all the dynamics now? Do you have children?
HD: No, I don’t, although the pressure is mounting from dad.
AC: Your brother has two boys; I was wondering how it will all work, in terms of your kids and his kids and what you tell them about grandpa and his other life.
HD: It’s interesting. Speaking just for me, I’d want my kids to know, when the time came, about my dad’s life and how complicated it was. I’m not sure what that age would be; both my nephews are young and they don’t understand the dynamics. I’m sure the questions will pop up, but I don’t know when that is – we’ll find out, I guess.
AC: In the film, your mom cried when remembering the time your dad called her and said he was married to someone else.
HD: It’s interesting that even after all these years, that holds such power still, going back to those places. I think a lot of times, you just shut off those emotions when something so raw happens. It was so strange to be there when that comes out again – she really went back to those places. Love is such a powerful emotion and you can see that in their relationship.
AC: You mention playing basketball. What was your career like?
HD: I went to McGill University in Montreal and played varsity for four years. I was a co-captain and the MVP of the team in the end, but playing in Canada is obviously a whole different level than playing in the States; it was something that was more playing because of the love of the game that I got from my dad – it was never going to be a career. It was a real way to communicate with my dad; if you had nothing else to talk about, you could always talk about your game or the NBA.
AC: How often do you get confused with the former NBA player, Hubert Davis?
HD: When I was younger, I always got that. Once, he got picked up by the Raptors and people asked me if I had gotten drafted by them. I’d always follow him and his career; it’s probably good he’s not in the NBA anymore – that might have gotten a bit confusing.
Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
