Sci-Fi & Squeam

17 Dec 2013

Beguiled by Bujalski : Computer Chess

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:43 — 15.3MB)

Here the Squeamer talks to the director called the “Godfather of Mumblecore” : Andrew Bujalski and his new film Computer Chess : ‘It’s the ’80s and the best and brightest computer scientists have gathered at a dingy Motor Inn where geeky men (and one woman) battle it out in an annual computer chess convention.’

From ACMI site:

Andrew spoke about the film being like ” going down the rabbit hole” and how the movie is based on the dawn of the new computer consumer era, before the big brands, before the big video games, before the Silicon Valley revolution!

It’s a movie slice of life on the evolution of the Nerd Culture from the 1970’s to the 1980’s and the idea that machines can beat the human mind at…CHESS!

Filmed entirely on Sony AVC 3260 video camera and involving a diverse cast of actors and non actors

Computer Chess is a delightful surreal trip back in time..or is it??

Enjoy this podcast with The Squeamer and Andrew Bujalski :

‘After two highly paid studio screenwriting gigs, which in his words “came to nothing”, he has made his most adventurous film in Computer Chess, a 1980s-set comedy about techno-buffs working on a program that can beat a human at chess. For that authentically flattened videotape texture, Bujalski shot the film in monochrome on tube-cameras from the era. “I’ve been making movies on 16mm for a decade,” he says. “And I’ve been asked over and over, sometimes with an undertone of anger, ‘Why do you still shoot on film?’ Some contrarian streak in me made me think: ‘OK. You want video so badly? I’ll show you video.'” Stylistically, the movie suggests Kubrick on a shoestring. ‘

Guardian article HERE

Computer Chess will be playing ONLy at ACMI from December 27th 2013 till January 19, 2014:

http://www.acmi.net.au/lp_computer_chess.aspx

MOVIE WEBSITE here