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Home > Movies > Brooklyn Castle

Brooklyn Castle

Critic's Pick Critics' Pick

(No longer in theaters)
  • Rating: PG — for some language
  • Director: Katie Dellamaggiore   Cast: Justus Williams, Rochelle Ballantyne, Pobo Efekoro, Alexis Paredes, Patrick Johnston
  • Running Time: 101 minutes
  • Reader Rating: Write a Review

Genre

Documentary

Producer

Katie Dellamaggiore, Nelson Dellamaggiore, Brian Schulz, Robert McLellan, Neal Flaherty

Distributor

Producers Distribution Agency

Release Date

Oct 19, 2012

Release Notes

NY

Official Website

Review

The game is afoot! Even if you've wearied of all the competition documentaries that arrived in the wake of Spellbound, Katie Dellamaggiore's awe-inspiring Brooklyn Castle will penetrate your defenses. It centers on a junior-high school, Williamsburgh's I.S. 138, one with roughly 70 percent of its students below the federal poverty line and a chess team. Watch these extraordinary children, male and female, pore over scenarios with their passionate instructors, their faces resolute as they shut out the world and enter the realm of higher gamesmanship. It's not To Sir, With Love: It's fierce ambition, the channeling of emotion, and hours of drilling. You'll envy them - yet even as they swell with pride, their school budget shrinks. — David Edelstein