Worlds collided at last night’s SILVERDOCS opening screening and after-party. While someone like Ira Glass might qualify as a mega-star personal appearance for the documentary aficionados that make up the festival’s core audience, last night brought star power of a completely different sort, as basketball phenom LeBron James (and entourage) showed up for last night’s screening of More Than a Game. The film documents the domination James and his teammates (collectively, the Fab 5) held over the world of high school basketball in the early ’00s. Excited fans lined the red carpet for James’ arrival, and the Blair High School marching band even performed inside the theater. After the screening, the band led everyone across the street to the Discovery building for the after-party, at which local rapper Wale performed to a largely dance-resistant crowd. When a DJ later tried to whip the crowd into a party mood by asking if anyone wanted to hear some go-go, he was largely met with blank stares. Not even a choice Backyard Band track could get those bodies moving.

I’m not trying to give them a hard time. They were there for the film, of course, not a hip-hop dance party, and More Than a Game delivered enthusiastic and appreciative rounds of applause. It’s the sort of crowd-pleaser that only the hardest of hearts could sit through without feeling the warm glow of inspiration. While not a particularly great documentary, it succeeds hugely at what it sets out to do, aided by a dramatic storyline that would probably be dismissed as too fantastically implausible if it was in a fiction film. And the fact that the story was documented at all was a stroke of pure luck for director Kristopher Belman.