Chess Movie - The Story of I.S. 318

CHESS MOVIE (working title) from Rescued Media on Vimeo.

Hi dear chess lovers!

Today I got an email from Katie Dellamaggiore, that I'd like to share with you. She's working on a chess movie, with an inspiring story about scholastic chess, which I liked very much. It stars the I.S. 318 chess team of Elizabeth Vicary in Brooklyn, New York. A true marvelous chess story that definitely deserves to be shared with the world!

I decided to back her project with a donation, maybe you'd like to do the same.

My name is Katie Dellamaggiore and I'm an independent filmmaker from Brooklyn, New York. Over the last 2 years I have been producing and directing a documentary about scholastic chess with my company Rescued Media. Chess Movie (working title) goes inside one of the best junior high chess program in the nation, Intermediate School 318 in Brooklyn, New York. Many students at 318 come from difficult circumstances and 60% are from low-income families, but being part of a winning chess team gives them a unique opportunity to experience success at a young age. Justus, Patrick, Alexis, Pobo & Rochelle are 5 of 50 team members that are learning on the chessboard the skills they need to face challenges of adolescence and their working class circumstances. As a woman who has found such great success at chess I think you will particularly enjoy Rochelle's story because she dreams of one day becoming the first female African American grandmaster. A dream that is well within her reach!

In April 2009 we embarked on our first trip with Rochelle and her teammates to the USCF Super Nationals in Nashville, Tennessee. Once we witnessed how big the scholastic chess world was, we were hooked. Over the next year we embedded ourselves with the team-- at home, at school and away at tournaments -- and slowly, the kids' individual stories began to take shape. It’s our ultimate goal to secure a national television broadcast for Chess Movie on PBS and maybe even a small theatrical release. We also plan to build a strong community outreach campaign in the hopes the film will build support for scholastic chess programs in under served communities as we have witnessed firsthand the profound effect the I.S. 318 chess program has had on its students.

Right now we have a fundraising campaign underway at Kickstarter.com. Kickstarter is an online funding platform for artists to engage with their audiences and build support for their projects. Our Kickstarter campaign has been successful so far, reaching our initial goal of $4,000 in just a few short weeks. But we still have 40 days to go and we need more than 4k to finish this film. As independent filmmakers we are working hard to make this documentary on our own and hope to complete production in the next few months.

The original link to the 5-minute teaser is here, and the company's blog is here.

Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com