BATTLEGROUND: The I S 318 Chess Team on a train. Right: Director Katie Dellamaggiore

Documentary Brooklyn Castle effectively uses chess as a metaphor for pursuit of excellence in life. By Anand Holla

There’s a lot of wisdom to be found in Brooklyn Castle. Katie Dellamaggiore’s triumphant documentary on a below-the-poverty-line inner city junior high school’s champion chess team gets up, close and personal with the students’ and teachers’ struggles and offers precious insights into chasing excellence.

As part of the exhibition Kings and Pawns: Board Games from India to Spain that is on at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) till June 21, the film was screened twice over the weekend to a heartening response.

Apart from its universal message of blending passion with perseverance, what makes the film relevant especially to Qatar — which is decidedly focused on providing top quality education — is its underlying message. That is how an “extra-curricular activity” such as chess can become an inspiration for academic success, and how a cleverly implemented school programme can elevate an institution to greatness.

At Intermediate School 318, or I S 318, it’s raining chess wizards. The school, whose nearly 70% of students live below the federal poverty level, happens to have the highest ranked junior high chess team in the USA. It has won more than 30 national championships in junior high chess competitions, the most of any school in the country.

Such is the calibre of some of the players in this 85-member squad that even the great Albert Einstein, a chess fanatic whose chess skill level was probably around 1800, would rank fourth if he were on the team.

In the 102-minute-long film, Dellamaggiore follows five of the school’s most interesting players, a couple of teachers and a couple of the students’ parents in their daily lives and across tours for one year, to see how chess and life intersect and just how gruelling it is to reach the top and stay there.

It was in 2000, that I S 318 overhauled its chess programme under the guidance of chess teacher and coach Elizabeth Spiegel and assistant principal and chess co-ordinator John Galvin, and began frequenting national tournaments. The persistence paid rich dividends, even securing it the US High School National Championship in 2012, a first for a junior high.

The roaring success in chess has an incredible ripple effect on the students, parents and the school management, who not only bask in their newfound pride but are also prepared to take challenges head-on. So when the recession-driven massive public school budget cuts threaten to put an end to their glorious run (no budget for travelling means no participating in tournaments), the students, school staff and parents join hands in countering the problem.

With a tagline like, “Imagine a school where the cool kids are the chess team. Welcome to I S 318,” it’s obvious that the narrative builds up a hero-like persona of the young guns. However, it does so while constantly reminding us that they are only humans after all.

Seventh grade student Alexis, one of the highest rated members of the I S 318 team, is a ridiculously intelligent chess player. The contemplative 12-year-old sees chess as a ticket to enter a top New York City public high school and therefore a lucrative career, with which he can liberate his Paraguayan immigrant parents and realise the American Dream.

Rochelle Ballantyne, the 13-year-old who defied the tradition of an all-boys chess club, is the first-ranked player at I S 318 (Paredes is second). Ballantyne is on her way to become the first African-American female master in the history of chess and also bag a fantastic chess scholarship. However, she has to ration her time and efforts judiciously because she doesn’t want to let go of her dream of becoming a lawyer.

While 11-year-old prodigy Justus Williams is among America’s highest-ranked young chess players, he is a victim of his own success and the unreal expectations that it comes with.

In 11-year-old Patrick Johnston, you see an underdog fighting to find his groove. The low-rated beginner, who suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a general lack of self-belief, wants to reach a decent mid-level ranking. Chess helps him build concentration and strengthens his determination.

The affable Pobo Efekoro clearly stands out as the rockstar of the team and the undisputed but warm-hearted leader of the pack. Cracking up the audience with his easy humour, Pobo markets himself as “Pobama” when he runs for school president — and wins — to mobilise a student protest and reverse budget cuts. Not to mention, he is a very skilled chess player as well.

The film, which has won quite a few awards at international film festivals, does a fine job of deconstructing even the two teachers; the driving force behind I S 318’s glory. Vicary, a chess champion who has trained novices into national title-winning stars, is more a cool friend than a tutor to the kids.

Galvin is perpetually pumped up about his band of chess champs and is terrific at pushing them towards excellence without stressing them too much.

Principal Fred Rubino is the rock solid foundation on which the school’s activities thrive. He takes budget cuts on the chin and yet manages to not let the students down. Extracurricular activities, Rubino points out, are not really “extra”, because they teach “the whole child.” Unfortunately, Rubino passed away in 2012, around the time the film was released.

When winning becomes a habit, facing a loss becomes a lot tougher. However, for I S 318 kids, winning is more of an attitude to keep up with than an obsession for collecting trophies. And it is in such finer points that the film’s lessons are hidden.

Brooklyn Castle tells that miracles happen when everybody comes together and pool in their passions towards achieving one distant goal. Not once do the teachers intimidate children or wear them down with the task ahead.

Instead they only remind the children about how important it is to keep up with their winning streak, so that the children self-cultivate the fighting spirit and adapt to it according to their personalities. As a result, the children too feel like they are part of the larger picture and are united with the school management when recession comes knocking.

Brian Schulz’s unobtrusive cinematography takes us straight into the scenes unfolding at the nail-biting chess tournaments, classrooms, the kids’ homes or even the staff discussing the way ahead. By focusing on their faces frozen in rapt attention, we can sense the tension simmering in their furiously ticking brains as they ponder over their next move.

It must have been hard for Dellamaggiore to translate the optimism and thrill that the I S 318’s story buzzes with. But fortunately, she manages to do just that and leaves us with a lot of solutions only if we are willing to see them.

 


BELOW:

ALMA MATER: The I S 318 school in Brooklyn.