Director's film-school project turned into critically lauded 'More Than a Game'
Cary Darling
Issue date: 11/3/09 Section: Entertainment
(MCT) DALLAS - Seven years ago, while a film student at Los Angeles' Loyola Marymount University, Kristopher Belman decided to do a 10-minute documentary about his hometown of Akron, Ohio. Today, that project, "More Than a Game," chronicling the ups and downs of five young basketball-playing friends, including an adolescent LeBron James, is a critically lauded, nationally distributed feature film.
It's all caught Belman, 29, who had not made a feature before, by surprise.
"The only word I can use to describe the whole thing is surreal," he said in a conference room at his publicist's office. "Never in a million years did I think I'd be in Dallas right now, having just come from Seattle. This is my fifth city in five days. It's tiring but a lot of my classmates would kill to be here. I'm not taking any of this for granted."
Actually, he can thank some of those classmates for partially giving him the idea for the movie. He remembers they would often joke about there being nothing worthwhile in Ohio and so, when given an assignment in a documentary class, Belman decided to prove them wrong by returning to Akron to find his subject.
"I was reading about these boys in high school. They were doing some incredible things on the court but it said they had played together since the fourth grade and they were going to high school together no matter what. I was blown away by that," Belman said. "That showed a sophisticated friendship that a lot of people in their 30s and 40s don't have."
Not long after, James made the cover of Sports Illustrated, and it looked like newfound fame might prove a barrier to Belman.
"They were really trying to keep the media out of their hair," Belman said. "I finally got to the coach, and that's when I said, 'I'm from Akron, this is a school project, I'm just trying to get an 'A,' and it's not about LeBron.'"
Belman was told he could come to one practice. They got along well enough that Belman decided he would just keep showing up until they told him to get lost. They never did.
It's all caught Belman, 29, who had not made a feature before, by surprise.
"The only word I can use to describe the whole thing is surreal," he said in a conference room at his publicist's office. "Never in a million years did I think I'd be in Dallas right now, having just come from Seattle. This is my fifth city in five days. It's tiring but a lot of my classmates would kill to be here. I'm not taking any of this for granted."
Actually, he can thank some of those classmates for partially giving him the idea for the movie. He remembers they would often joke about there being nothing worthwhile in Ohio and so, when given an assignment in a documentary class, Belman decided to prove them wrong by returning to Akron to find his subject.
"I was reading about these boys in high school. They were doing some incredible things on the court but it said they had played together since the fourth grade and they were going to high school together no matter what. I was blown away by that," Belman said. "That showed a sophisticated friendship that a lot of people in their 30s and 40s don't have."
Not long after, James made the cover of Sports Illustrated, and it looked like newfound fame might prove a barrier to Belman.
"They were really trying to keep the media out of their hair," Belman said. "I finally got to the coach, and that's when I said, 'I'm from Akron, this is a school project, I'm just trying to get an 'A,' and it's not about LeBron.'"
Belman was told he could come to one practice. They got along well enough that Belman decided he would just keep showing up until they told him to get lost. They never did.
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