Friday screening of 'The Other Dream Team'

At the Friday night screening of "The Other Dream Team" at the TowerTheatre, the doc (in the U.S. Documentary Cinema category) receivedwarm applause from a packed house, including some who gave standingovations.Director Marius Markevicius (familar to some for producing lastyear's Grand Jury Prize dramatic winner "Like Crazy") and producerJon Weinbach attended the post-screening Q-and-A wearing tie-dyedt-shirts worn by the Lithuanian basketball team during the 1992Olympics.The film documented the rise of Lithuanian basketball in the fomerSoviet-controlled country and the team's upliftingbronze-medal-winning tournament during the Olypmics in Barcelona.(The team had no money to pay for uniforms, so the band The GratefulDead stepped up and paid for the distinctive uniforms.)Markevicius said the film was a "passion project" for him, since bothof his parents emigrated to the U.S. from Lithuania and Lithuanianwas the first language he spoke. "I was born to make this film," hesaid.Markevicius was proud of his film, but wondered aloud if it would bethe last documentarry he would make, since dramatic featuresgenerally feature shorter shoots. (This doc took three years tomake.) In addition, "It will be hard to find something that I'm aspassionate about," he said.— David Burger