Computer Chess

Director • Andrew Bujalski

Country • USA

Year • 2013

Duration • 92 min

Rating • M

“An endearingly nutty, proudly analog tribute to the ultra-nerdy innovators of yesteryear.” -Variety

In 1980, computer nerds assemble at a programming tournament to test their chess-playing machines. Filmed in black and white on vintage videotape, Andrew Bujalski’s sophisticated mockumentary begins as an oddball time capsule, but swiftly spirals into far weirder and more hilarious territory as these awkward geeks cross paths with free-spirited hippies on a New Age retreat.

Screening as part of the Speakeasy Cinema Selects series at Rooftop Cinema, every Tuesday evening through the ’13-14 season.

“The most striking thing about the movie is its amazingly detailed and precise reconstruction of the styles of the day—the haircuts, the clothing, the eyeglasses, and the furnishing; the classic computer, down to the blinking C.R.T. cursor and the dot-matrix printer—and even the images themselves, which Bujalski and his cinematographer, Matthias Grunsky, created with archival, analogue, vacuum-tube-based video cameras (which are even seen onscreen).”

–The New Yorker