• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
SeriesFest

SeriesFest

A Celebration of Episodic Storytelling

  • Festival
    • Box Office
    • Season 11 Lineup
    • Amy Schumer & Friends
    • Festival Funds & Awards
      • Outstanding Series Format Deck Award
      • Caz Matthews Fund
      • Inclusive Creator Fund
      • Intersectionality Fund
      • Last Year’s Winners
    • Last Year’s Galleries
    • Festival FAQs
  • Professional Development
    • Artist Resources
      • Canva Workshops
        • Pitch Deck Workshop with Lucy Porter
        • Vanguard Program + Workshops
      • United Entertainment
      • Fiscal Sponsorship
    • Storytellers Initiative
    • Women Directing Mentorship
    • Executive Elevation Mentorship
    • TV Writing Lab with #FilmBelize and Belize Global Media
    • Jan Marino Scholarship
  • Education
    • Mobile Cinema Lab
    • National Mobile Cinema Lab
    • High School Day
    • Collegiate Fellows
    • Summer Intensive
  • Media Center
    • Press
    • Blog
    • Podcast
  • About
    • Sponsors
    • Staff & Board
    • Jobs
    • Inclusivity
    • Accessibility
  • Support Us
  • Show Search
Hide Search

55 The Untold Story of the 1993 Dunbar Basketball Team

Jacob Cummings · June 24, 2024 ·

Fiscal Sponsorship Project

Support

Series Synopsis

This Washington, DC team was led by Coach Michael McLeese, who has coached many players who became top basketball players in NCAA division 1 schools, and even some that went on to play professionally in both the NBA and overseas leagues. What makes this team and year so special is that it was not stacked with star players but filled with unknown talented athletes from the inner city.

These 13 young men pushed beyond what was expected of them and avoided the pitfalls of street life to achieve their goals. Each player had their own hardships off court but being a part of this team helped them succeed both academically and in sports, with “55” ultimately becoming their way of life.

We follow the team’s journey throughout the season, including regaining the title of the DCIAA champions, City Title champions, Whataburger Basketball Tournament champions, City of Palms Classic champions and winning the International School Sport Federation (ISF) Basketball Tournament in Athens Greece representing the USA.

Key Team

Angel Williams – Writer/Producer – Angel Williams, a writer and producer, who hails from Washington, D.C.  but currently lives in Denver, CO. She is an U.S. Army disabled veteran that was given an opportunity to attend the Writer’s Guild Initiative, where she turned her short stories into screenplays. She is a fellow of Respectability Entertainment Lab. She has placed as a semi-finalist in the ScreenCraft Film Fund for multiple of her screenplays and has made the Coverfly’s Red List as well. Angel not only witnessed the journey of this Dunbar basketball team but was dating and now married to one of the former players, Roland Williams.

Keonia Williams – Director/Producer – Keonia Williams, an actress, writer, and producer, born in Washington, DC. Known as Ke-Ke, started acting at the age of 9, in theater and then into theTV/Film. She appeared in, Dear Eleanor, The Accountant, Netflix Original Film Amateur, and Netflix Original Series Daybreak. She is the co-founder of Soldier Up Productions with her mother, Angel Williams. She recently produced her first short film, In Real Life and is finishing her first feature script titled, Rare. Keonia is the oldest daughter of Roland Williams, who was one of the former players of the Dunbar  basketball team.

Support this project

To donate by check or ACH, please email info@seriesfest.com.

Support other projects

Brewability

A cool job can be hard to find for anyone, but especially for disabled adults. Enter Brewability: a brewery, restaurant, and music venue in Colorado,…
Support

SPADURA

Written and performed by acclaimed comedian Dahéli Hall, SPADURA unapologetically takes on grief, the pressures of motherhood, the toll of IVF, as well as the…
Support

I Play Different

A sonically-driven documentary series that connects women who make guitars with the women who play them.
Support

Questions?

Contact Us
info@seriesfest.com

Fiscal Sponsorship Projects

SeriesFest

Copyright © 2025

  • Support
  • Jobs
  • Festival FAQs
  • Submission FAQs
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}