Computer Chess

Guest speaker: Clare Bates Congdon, on “A.I. and Gaming”

“… Computer Chess, Andrew Bujalski’s peculiar and sneakily brilliant film… takes place in 1980 at an annual gathering where teams of nerds compete to see which of their programs can do better against a human chess player….Mr. Bujalski, 36, previously known as a wry, deadpan observer of his own generation, shoots their interactions in state-of-the-art late-’70s analog, which is to say in bracingly hideous and therefore strangely beautiful black-and-white video….The setting (is) a nondescript hotel whose windowless meeting rooms house both the computer chess tournament and a sex-tinged group therapy retreat. The encounter between geeks and seekers generates some fine comic moments — as when an earnest young code writer falls into the clutches of a swinging older couple — and an intriguing sociological connection. Spiritual exploration and technological innovation are not necessarily very far apart, and both play a crucial, perhaps misunderstood role in recent history. Part of the humor of the film lies in the wondrous obsolescence it beholds. Each chess team arrives with cumbersome monitors and hard drives the size of small refrigerators, all of it far less powerful than the cellphone in a given viewer’s pocket….” — A. O. Scott, New York Times. (Unrated, 2013,  92 min.)

Tickets: $10, $6 for students and Maine Film Center members