Mania review from the Columbian 11/13/08

Dan Schaefer wondered for a time if he really wanted to focus his first feature-length documentary on the Portland Trail Blazers.
The film, "Mania," which played this week at the Northwest Film and Video Festival in Portland, required two years and filled 27 hours of interviews. Schaefer talked to team members and fans from all eras, dug up old footage of games and interviews with players while stitching together a comprehensive history of the team.
But when Schaefer started the project, cynicism around Portland was still thick. The team was in financial turmoil. Paul Allen was exploring a sale of the franchise. The Blazers had posted the league's worst record during the prior season, having bottomed out at end of a long, destructive slide into a pit of fan unrest.
Schaefer was among those fans. And it made the veteran storyboard artist, who has been involved with nearly 30 films and television shows, wrestle with the project.
"Do I really like this idea?" Schaefer said he asked himself.
But a funny thing happened while working through the project. Schaefer rediscovered his love for the team.
Somewhere in the interviews with Stu Inman and Harry Glickman, footage of the 1977 championship team and memories of Rip City's return in the early 1990s, Schaefer discovered the feelings those events once invoked. And they wove themselves throughout "Mania."
The Jail Blazers? The era is reduced to a short G-rated rehash. Specific instances are never mentioned, making that time period feel like a bad rash as opposed to a cancer. And just like its place in Blazers lore, the Jail Blazers feel out of place in Schaefer's film.
Because "Mania" doesn't focus on what went wrong for a short period.
It focuses on what went right for so many years.
A majority of the film is concentrated on the warm, memorable moments. It starts with the building of Portland's championship team and explores how it came together. It weaves in an intimate interview with Bill Walton from the Blazers documentary "Fast Break," and mixes discussions with fans as well as players and team management.
They share memories about the bond the Blazers held with Portland, recalling how everybody -- team and fans -- seemed to be on the ride to glory together as one city-wide franchise. And at every turn, the film's central message is driven home: This is what it meant to be a Blazers fan.
And appropriately, the film ends with the Blazers' selection of Greg Oden in the 2007 draft, with footage of fans rushing the Rose Garden floor and celebrating in a mob like they had just won a championship. It captures an important moment for the franchise, not just because it brought back hope of a return to competitiveness, but because it reminded people overnight of why they cared.
And that is what Schaefer hopes "Mania" will accomplish. Its interviews and memories reminded Schaefer of the special feeling the Blazers once instilled -- like the wins and losses were shared, and caring for the team went beyond the borders of the court. And by presenting those images to the public, Schaefer hopes the fans who remain skeptical might be reminded of what being a Blazers fan can still mean.
"It's something that, if we all knew how good it was, we would all be behind them," Schaefer said. "That feeling is worth striving for."
Brian Hendrickson is the Trail Blazers beat writer for The Columbian. Contact him at (360) 735-4528 or brian.hendrickson@columbian.com. Read his Blazers Banter blog at columbian.com/sports/blazers. For information on "Mania," visit NWfilm.org.