Basketball Heaven is a story of healing, community and the journey through self we must all take to return home.

status: production

Crew

Directed and Produced by Resita Heavenly Cox

Produced by Crystal Isaac

Director of Photography: Eric D. Seals

Consulting Producer: Bhawin Suchak

Editor: Donnie Seals

On-location Sound: Brian Allonce

Executive Producer: Natalie Bullock-Brown

Associate Producer: Tyra Dixon

Production Coordinator: Alexis Bell

Kinston, North Carolina, is the single greatest producer of NBA players in the world. Players from their high school’s varsity boys’ team are 63 times more likely to make it to the NBA than anywhere else in the United States, according to ESPN. In Kinston, basketball is more than a game; it is a lifeline, and for some families, their only means of escaping difficult economic circumstances. Basketball Heaven showcases the communal love at the heart of this sports legacy and how community has helped Black people survive and thrive throughout time. 

Filmmaker Resita Cox journeys home to Kinston, confronting a childhood marked by absent parents, their drug addictions, and poverty. She revisits the teachers and coaches who supported her, including town matriarch Ms. Felicia Solomon. Ms. Solomon transformed her own childhood trauma into a lifelong career in education, nurturing countless young people. Solomon spent years as the principal of Rochelle Middle School—Kinston High’s feeder school—which enjoyed a 14-year winning stretch in the past and regularly sells out games. Ms. Solomon hired acclaimed coach Jesse Miller to head Rochelle’s boys’ basketball and football teams. 

Solomon and Miller demonstrate the commitment it takes to provide in a low-income community, but they are uncertain who will succeed them after retirement. Basketball Heaven is a portrait of a southern Black community that has withstood trials—from devastating flooding to an education system marked by racial inequality—and reigned supreme in basketball.

  • 2023 South Pitch Documentary WINNER at New Orleans Film Festival

  • 2023 Southern Documentary Fund Production Grantee

  • 2023 Filmed in NC Fund Grantee

  • 2024 Sundance Institute Grantee

  • 2024 ITVS Open Call Production Grantee

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Director’s Statement

I left my birthplace, Kinston, the setting of this movie, at 18, never looking back due to its pervasive hurt.

Despite being one of the poorest cities in the state, Kinston is the world's greatest per capita producer of NBA talent. My own story mirrors Kinston's duality: an Emmy-Award winning filmmaker, yet raised in extreme poverty by parents fighting addictions in a town scarred by trauma and loss, but also impossible wins.

As Audre Lorde said, we were never meant to survive. 

 What I lacked at home, I found in the community, particularly with Ms. Felicia Solomon, my first Black teacher. Her unofficial adoption of me in 5th grade was a pivotal, serendipitous event that shaped my life, a story explored in the film. The very fabric of my survival was woven by friends, their parents, teachers, coaches, and community members in Kinston—Basketball Heaven is an ode to them and a call back to our communal survival roots.

I never intended to return to Eastern North Carolina, but now I happily spend my summers here running a film camp for aspiring filmmakers. My younger self would find it ironic that 15 years after leaving Kinston, I, Resita Heavenly Cox, am intentionally back. For many from the 2-5-2, Kinston signifies hurt, grief, and lost Black futures—not a place one returns to lightly. Yet, in 2022, teary-eyed and apprehensive, I drove 15 hours from Chicago back to North Carolina. I couldn't explain it, but Spirit called me home urgently, and I knew not to ignore it, so I left. 

 We can never really leave where we are born. We just travel around the world until it is time to come back home.

Basketball Heaven blends magical realism and vérité to create a poetic community portrait. It captures Kinston's soul through wide shots of the landscape and tight shots of its people, focusing on Southern details. The film weaves archival footage of Kinston's historic Black community, revealing its segregated education past. The fast-paced rhythm of Kinston’s basketball is juxtaposed with the town's slow life, highlighting basketball's energetic pulse. Poetic sequences open a parallel universe, with my narration guiding the audience through Kinston’s Black history and past versions of myself and the main characters.

As a Kinston High graduate and former editor of the Viking Press, our now defunct student newspaper, I am uniquely positioned to tell this story, because it is my story. Unlike previous attempts by outsiders, my perspective as a Black Kinston native ensures a film that transcends common tropes of violence and poverty, highlighting our community's resilience, love, and spiritual depth instead. 


IMPACT

Basketball Heaven includes a summer film program, building on my annual Freedom Hill Youth Media Camp in Princeville, NC. Our impact campaign will foster intergenerational conversations, uniting Black Kinston residents and athletes. I have also established the Community Coaches Emergency Fund and our film sponsored both Kinston High and their feeder, Rochelle Middle School’s Girls Varsity Basketball teams during our production phase.



Directors Statement

I left my birthplace, Kinston, the setting of this movie, at 18, never looking back due to its pervasive hurt. Despite being one of the poorest cities in the state, Kinston is the world's greatest per capita producer of NBA talent. My own story mirrors Kinston's duality: an Emmy-Award winning filmmaker, yet raised in extreme poverty by parents fighting addictions in a town scarred by trauma and loss, but also impossible wins.

As Audre Lorde said, we were never meant to survive. 

What I lacked at home, I found in the community, particularly with Ms. Felecia Solomon, my first Black teacher. Her unofficial adoption of me in 5th grade was a pivotal, serendipitous event that shaped my life, a story explored in the film. The very fabric of my survival was woven by friends, their parents, teachers, coaches, and community members in Kinston—Basketball Heaven is an ode to them and a call back to our communal survival roots.

I never intended to return to Eastern North Carolina, but now I happily spend my summers here running a film camp for aspiring filmmakers. My younger self would find it ironic that 15 years after leaving Kinston, I, Resita Heavenly Cox, am intentionally back. For many from the 2-5-2, Kinston signifies hurt, grief, and lost Black futures—not a place one returns to lightly. Yet, in 2022, teary-eyed and apprehensive, I drove 15 hours from Chicago back to North Carolina. I couldn't explain it, but Spirit called me home urgently, and I knew not to ignore it, so I left. 

 We can never really leave where we are born. We just travel around the world until it is time to come back home.

Basketball Heaven blends magical realism and vérité to create a poetic community portrait. It captures Kinston's soul through wide shots of the landscape and tight shots of its people, focusing on Southern details. The film weaves archival footage of Kinston's historic Black community, revealing its segregated education past. The fast-paced rhythm of Kinston’s basketball is juxtaposed with the town's slow life, highlighting basketball's energetic pulse. Poetic sequences open a parallel universe, with Resita's narration guiding the audience through Kinston’s Black history and past versions of herself and the main characters.

As a Kinston High graduate and former editor of the Viking Press, our now defunct student newspaper, I am uniquely positioned to tell this story, because it is my story. Unlike previous attempts by outsiders, my perspective as a Black Kinston native ensures a film that transcends common tropes of violence and poverty, highlighting our community's resilience, love, and spiritual depth instead. 

IMPACT:

Basketball Heaven includes a summer film program, building on Resita's Freedom Hill Youth Media Camp. The film, a mandatory teaching tool, aligns with her goal to empower communities. Our impact campaign will foster intergenerational conversations, uniting Black Kinston residents and athletes. Resita has also established the Community Coaches Emergency Fund and sponsors Kinston High’s and their feeder, Rochelle Middle School’s, Girls Varsity Basketball teams.



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