Andrew Bujalski: Computer Chess
@ Northeastern Illinois University
3701 W Bryn Mawr Ave, Chicago, IL 60646
Opening Wednesday, January 9th, from 7:30PM - 9:30PM
COMPUTER CHESS
Directed by Andrew Bujalski • 2013
In a nondescript motel somewhere in Texas, a confluence of computer programmers, swinging new agers, doomsday spectators, video technicians, and an unconscionable number of cats have found themselves in the midst of some very strange happenings. Structured around a chess tournament played by computers and supervised by a room full of idealistic professors, tech industry players, and unaffiliated wildcards, “Computer Chess” looks to a time in which the utopian dreams of networked technology had yet to be tainted by VC funds and security state interests. Saddling his cast with Coke-bottle glasses and overstarched shirts, independent stalwart Andrew Bujalski revels in the flat, beautifully utilitarian aesthetics of his milieu, shooting on smeary black-and-white video courtesy of ancient Sony Portapak cameras that were already well out of date by the 1980s. Equal parts mockumentary, sports saga, and science fiction, “Computer Chess” feels like no other film the American cinema has recently produced, an unclassifiable brain teaser that changes shape with every scene. We’re proud to present Bujalski’s contemporary masterpiece in a format as gloriously unexpected as the film itself: a 35mm print specially commissioned by the Chicago Film Society. (CW)
91 min • Computer Chess LLC • 35mm from Chicago Film Society Collections, permission Kino Lorber
Preceded by: Richard Simmons in “Noah Water to Waste” (Golden West Television, 1983) – 9 min – 16mm
General Admission: $7
Screening in The Auditorium @ NEIU – Building E (3701 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.)
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Tags: Andrew Bujalski, Chicago, Chicago Film Society, Computer Chess, North Park, Northeastern Illinois University
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