‘We make movies to share stories’: Oscar-winning Halifax filmmaker returns home

A Halifax filmmaker and recent Oscar winner received a warm welcome as he showed off his film and his golden statue at a screening in Halifax on Wednesday.

Ben Proudfoot won an Academy Award for Best Short Documentary for his film “The Queen of Basketball” back in March.

The film, which documents the life of 1970s basketball legend Luisa ‘Lucy’ Harris, premiered at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Harris was the first woman to score a basket in the Olympics, the first and only woman drafted by the NBA, and the first woman of colour to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Proudfoot, a graduate of Citadel High School in Halifax, returned to the region earlier this week for a screening of his film.

“I know there’s a lot of people in the audience who taught me, who mentored me, who gave me so much of themselves when I was a little kid with a lot of energy and a lot of ideas,” he said. “Not much has changed.”

It may have been the 31-year-old’s first Oscar win but it was his second nomination. Proudfoot’s short documentary “A Concerto is a Conversation” was nominated for an Academy Award in 2021.

“This is what you get when you invest in young people with ideas,” Proudfoot told the Halifax audience as he held up his award.

The screening of the 22-minute film was held Wednesday evening at Neptune Theatre in downtown Halifax.

After winning his award in March, Proudfoot summed up the experience to CTV Atlantic in two words: “It’s crazy.”

Proudfoot gave his acceptance speech during the Oscars pre-show as Harris’ family watched from the audience.

"I think they immediately broke down into tears," he said at the time. "I think it was a very cathartic moment for her family as you can imagine."

Proudfoot, who now lives in Los Angeles, has been transporting his Oscar in the most Maritimer fashion possible – in a reusable Sobeys bag.

The screening, hosted by Premier Tim Houston and Screen Nova Scotia, gave Proudfoot the chance to see “lots of people who made bets on me early on.”

Calling the experience an amazing and emotional journey, Proudfoot hopes to eventually bring his Oscar back to Mississippi to create an exhibit for Harris in her hometown.

“I really see it as an award that Lucy won. She’s the extraordinary story behind the film, so I’m custodian of this thing, but it’s Lucy Harris’ award. My dad was a lawyer and I kind of feel like a lawyer who won a case and this is the verdict,” he says.

Proudfoot is already working on his next documentary. Titled “Mink,” the film follows Patsy Mink, the first congresswoman of colour.

Mink, who appears in “The Queen of Basketball,” wrote and defended Title 9, the legislation that banned discrimination on the basis of sex in education – a law that paved the way for Harris to play basketball in the ‘70s.

“We don’t make movies to win awards,” he said. “We make movies to share stories.”