What if, rather than celebrating football players for smashing each other in physical competition, we revered the smart kids for doing battle with their minds? It might seem like a fantasy, but at Intermediate School 318, it is reality. At this public middle school in Brooklyn, New York, the team that's most celebrated is the chess team – and they are really good at the game.
The school holds nearly 30 national championships, more than any other school in the country – a truly remarkable accomplishment. But what is especially unique is that I.S. 318 is a Title I school, with more than 70 percent of its students coming from homes below the poverty line. This unlikely story of I.S. 318 and their triumphs and troubles is being told in a documentary being released this week called Brooklyn Castle.
"In some schools, if you're on the chess team, you're this pariah that no one wants anything to do with," says the school's principal, Fred Rubino, at the beginning of the film. "In 318, the geeks, they are the athletes!" Are they ever. Not only is the school referred to as "the Yankees of chess," but last year's team had two masters, both the ripe old age of 13.
The movie, which won an audience award at this year's SXSW, tells the story of the chess team through the lives of its members. Faced with uncertain futures, most kids on the team look at chess as a ticket to scholarships and opportunity otherwise unavailable to them. Director Katie Dellamaggiore, in her first feature film, points her camera and shows us the genuineness of these kids' lives – and then an interesting thing happens.
Unlike many documentaries that examine people in hardship and their subsequent renewal, in Brooklyn Castle, the focus is never really on the adversity that these kids face. Yes, they come from low-income families and, more than anyone, they have the right to complain about their current state, but in a hundred minutes of film, there's nary a complaint. Rather, the kids, their families, and friends are all incredibly positive. The parents are all exceedingly proud of their children and particularly supportive. The result is a very inspirational film and one that's not so much a tale of triumph over adversity, as it is about sheer triumph.
Dellamaggiore has picked her subjects for further exploration well. Out of the eighty kids on the team – anyone at the school can participate – she has chosen five. From the outgoing Pobo, who sees the office of class president as a stepping stone to living at 1600 Pennsylvania; to Rochelle, who seems to struggle with her desire to be the first black female grandmaster; to Patrick, who, although not a great player, likes that chess helps him overcome his ADHD; you cannot help but fall in love with these kids. Alexis, who hopes to make his parents proud by becoming a lawyer, and Justus, a prodigy who has trouble adjusting to increased competition, round out the group.
But the film isn't just about chess. Hit with budget cuts, the team was facing severe difficulties during filming. Dellamaggiore recalls, "We found out that the school got hit with really bad budget cuts. We started shooting and about three or four months later, [assistant principal and chess coach] John Galvin called to say ... 'I know you're planning on coming and shooting for the entire school year starting in September, but just so you know, we have a couple of competitions lined up and we might not have enough money to go. You might want to reconsider [shooting the movie].'"
"And I [said], that's very sweet, John, thank you for that, but that's the story now. We're making this film about this chess program and if the program doesn't have enough money for competition then that's the story," Dellamaggiore explains. The issue of funds and budgets ended up being as big a story in the film as the success of the chess team and illustrates the hardships that many districts face these days.
Unfortunately, it's an adversity that continues for the kids of 318. According to Dellamaggiore, "[318] has no money to travel for competition. The only way they've been able to get by is through private donations." It's a circumstance that's all too familiar for kids at schools all around the nation as [pay-to-play](http://education-law.lawyers.com/school-law/Pay-to-Play-at-Schools-Has-Some-Crying-Foul.html ""Pay-to-Play" at Schools Has Some Crying "Foul!" - Lawyers.com") becomes more frequent in extracurricular activities.
"We encourage people to donate to the I.S. 318 chess team," says Dellamaggiore. "As filmmakers, that's one of our first priorities - to give back to the program that gave us this wonderful story to tell. But we also want people to realize that they can think about ways to support programs like this in their own neighborhoods and schools. They can think about starting a chess club or becoming a mentor or donating money to a local program. On our website, there's lots of ways for people to help."
Brooklyn Castle opens this weekend in New York City, next week in Los Angeles, and in about a dozen cities nationwide in November.
