LeBron Featured In Documentary [Archive]

duncan228

09-09-2008, 11:09 AM

LeBron emotional at movie premiere (http://www.ohio.com/sports/high_school/28042329.html)
Documentary is a hit at Toronto film festival
By David Lee Morgan Jr.
Beacon Journal sports writer

TORONTO: Kristopher Belman, an Akron native turned Hollywood filmmaker, couldn't have come up with a more appropriate title for his extremely entertaining and revealing documentary More Than a Game, which was a huge hit during its premiere Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The movie features the story of Cavaliers superstar LeBron James and his ''Fab Five'' friends — Dru Joyce III, Sian Cotton, Willie McGee and Romeo Travis — who won a national basketball championship at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School during their senior season.

Using never-before-seen home videos, pictures and exclusive interviews from James, his longtime friends, and a host of family members, Belman delivered a poignant film that opens up the personal life of not only James, but also the lives of every person who has meant something to James, including his mother, Gloria.

You don't need to be a movie critic to know this film will be a success.

Belman did a fantastic job extracting interesting and personal stories from the cast. To do that, he needed to establish love, friendship, loyalty and trust for — and from — his cast members when he met them in 2003. He did so when he started this project as a senior at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, a school nationally known for its film program.

I had to fight back a few tears as I sat in the theater watching the film, and I'm sure there were many others in the sold-out crowd of 1,200 at Ryerson Theatre who felt the same way.

The film, for which James is the executive producer, is more than a bunch of kids playing basketball, winning games and being cocky. It's more than a filmmaker trying to make a quick buck by capitalizing on James' fame.

It's James' personal story.

How emotional was the film for James? After the screening, which earned a roaring standing ovation from the audience, the principal cast members (the Fab Five, along with St. V-M coach Dru Joyce II) left their seats in the front of the theater and went onstage for a question-and-answer session with the audience. The Q&A never happened, however, because James and his friends spent the 20-plus minutes expressing their feelings openly and publicly to the audience.

James thanked the audience for coming. He thanked Belman, whom the players continue to call ''Cameraman'' instead of Kris, for doing such a wonderful job. He thanked Joyce and Travis for flying nine hours from Germany, where they are playing basketball professionally, to attend the event.

Belman effectively captured the essence of the film, which was friendship, loyalty, trust and love, James said.

Then, James, a 6-foot-8, 260-pound man who has carried an NBA franchise on his back since his rookie season at age 18, stopped talking and started to get choked up.

He cried onstage.

For the first time, the public witnessed a deeply emotional moment for James.

''This is the first time I've cried — in basketball or anything — since we lost that national championship game in eighth grade,'' James said, referring to an AAU game in Orlando.

He wasn't the only one who cried.

When Travis took the microphone, he commented about the film and before he could get through his thank-yous, he paused so he wouldn't break down.

But he did.

Same with coach Joyce.

There are at least four moments in the movie that will have you fighting the urge to just say, ''Ahh.''

An insider associated with the movie said Belman had a tough time selling his idea to Hollywood.

''Typically, people in Hollywood automatically say, 'No, no, no,' before even hearing or seeing an idea,'' the individual said.

Belman never gave up and eventually met Harvey Mason Jr., the film's producer.

Before backing Belman, Mason made a name for himself in the music industry and is well respected on the West Coast.

Mason and Damon Thomas, the production team that is The Underdogs, were responsible for the soundtrack of the award-winning 2006 film Dreamgirls. Mason gave Belman the backing he needed three years ago because they trusted each other, and Mason believed in Belman, just as James and his friends believed in Belman.

After the audience left the theater, all I could do was wonder what others will think of the movie once it's bought and distributed in U.S. theaters.

Will they be critical and cynical when it comes to James and his rags-to-riches story? Will they continue, as some do, to think of James as a pompous, arrogant, self-glorifying professional athlete?

Or will they, like the audience at Saturday's showing at the Ryerson Theatre, sit back with an open mind, watch the film and be entertained and moved like my wife and I and hundreds of other spectators?

My guess is that most audiences thoroughly will enjoy this film because it is More Than a Game, as Belman put it.