Halifax filmmaker gets his second Oscar nomination in a row

Local filmmaker Ben Proudfoot is celebrating after receiving his second Academy Academy Award nomination in as many years.

The Halifax native earned the esteemed nomination on Tuesday for his latest film, The Queen of Basketball.

“I’m in total shock,” admits Proudfoot from Los Angeles, where he is CEO and owner of Breakwater Studios, a production house that is dedicated to creating humanist short form documentaries. “I also think we did a good job crafting a good film, but people are really responding to Lucy and her story.”

Already racking up a selection of top prizes at such well-regarded festivals as Palm Springs International ShortFest and from the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, The Queen of Basketball focuses its camera on Lusia “Lucy” Harris, one of basketball’s greatest athletes and the first woman to ever be drafted into the NBA.

“This is a story about someone who was the daughter of sharecroppers,” notes Proudfoot about the film’s subject who grew up in the Mississippi Delta at the height of racial segregation. “(She’s) somebody who, despite her undeniable dominance of a talent, was denied opportunities and a platform to have a fulfilling and enriching career and I think we are all paying more attention to those kind of stories.”

In addition to being drafted by the New Orleans Jazz in 1977, Harris also amassed such accomplishments as winning three national trophies, scoring the first basket in women’s basketball at the 1976 Olympic Games and becoming the first woman of colour to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

“I feel proud to have helped get Lucy’s story to the next level of recognition. I’m happy — that’s what we wanted to do and so I feel proud,” says the filmmaker, who founded Breakwater Studios in 2012, moving the operation from Halifax to Los Angeles in 2019.

“When you watch the film, I think at the end of it, you talk about Lucy,” continues Proudfoot. “You talk about her personality, her smile, her giggle, her career — the heartbreaking twists and turns.”

Unfortunately Lucy Harris did not get to see the realization of the film’s Academy Award nomination. The basketball pioneer passed away on January 18 at the age of 66.

“It’s been a tragic turn of events through this whole thing and it was totally unexpected,” adds Proudfoot, clearly emotional when he talks about the late sports superstar. “The funeral was on Saturday, so it’s been a real roller-coaster ride for her family and friends, and our team, so I do think this has been bright point for them.”

If nothing else, the Oscar nomination is a fitting tribute to one of the sports most talented but unheralded stars. Only now is Harris beginning to get the recognition from both fans and her peers that she has earned — noted by example when NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal signed on as executive producer of The Queen of Basketball.

Proudfoot is obviously hoping the film will get awarded the Oscar for Documentary Short Subject at the glitzy awards show held on March 27 from the Dolby Theatre auditorium in Los Angeles, however he knows that the nomination does not guarantee him the big prize.

Nominated last year in the same category for his short film A Concerto is a Conversation, Proudfoot’s study of the connection between a virtuoso jazz pianist and film composer with his 91-year-old grandfather lost to Colette, a film about a surviving member of the French resistance from World War II.

“I am full of doubt in basically everything that I do so I think, if anything, I put more pressure on myself to do better next time,” says Proudfoot about what the prospective award would mean for his career.

“We tried to take a backseat, meat and potatoes approach and really tell her story the way that she told it (so) to me, with the news … I see this as Lucy’s accomplishment — champion basketball pioneer and now an Academy Award nominated storyteller.”

To watch The Queen of Basketball, visit the Breakwater Studios website.