''Brooklyn Castle'' (
2012
2012 was designated as:
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Events January
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) is a
documentary film
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
about
Intermediate School 318, an inner-city public school in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
. Where an after-school chess program, having both dedicated educators and a supportive community, has triumphed over deep budget cuts to build the most winning junior high school chess team in the country, and the first middle school team to win the
United States Chess Federation's national high school championship. The film follows five of the school's chess team members for one year, from April 2009 to June 2010, and documents their challenges and triumphs both on and off the chessboard.
Remake rights have been acquired by
Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment (theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and rec ...
and producer
Scott Rudin. Rudin's other works include co-producing the acclaimed film ''
Searching for Bobby Fischer'' (1993).
''Brooklyn Castle'' premiered at the
South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival on March 11, 2012. Over the next several months it was shown during at least eleven other film festivals winning a total of three festival awards to date. The film was released to a limited number of U.S. theaters on October 19, 2012. ''Brooklyn Castle'' was aired on the
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
series ''
POV'' on October 7, 2013.
Reception
Currently, the film has a rating of 96% on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, based on 45 reviews and an average score of 7.6/10.
References
External links
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Chess in the Schools
2012 films
American documentary films
Films about chess
Chess in the United States
Documentary films about children
Documentary films about New York City
2012 documentary films
Documentary films about education in the United States
Films set in Brooklyn
Kickstarter-funded documentaries
2012 in chess
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
English-language documentary films
Films shot in New York City
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