Brooklyn Castle

I.S. 318 in Brooklyn is a junior high where more than sixty-five per cent of the students come from households below the poverty line, and it is also the school that has won more national chess titles than any other junior high in the United States. The documentary follows five students from tournament to tournament while showing how post-recession budget cuts threaten the programme. So the film is as much about the school staying alive as about chess; the pressure on these children does not come only from the board. Katie Dellamaggiore directed. It won the audience award at SXSW in 2012, and the fate of the school became a matter of public argument after the film came out.