Brooklyn Castle is a documentary about I.S. 318 – an inner-city school where more than 65 percent of students are from homes with incomes below the federal poverty level – that also happens to have the best, most winning junior high school chess team in the country. (If Albert Einstein, who was rated 1800, were to join the team, he’d only rank fifth best.) Chess has transformed the school from one cited in 2003 as a “school in need of improvement” to one of New York City’s best. But a series of recession-driven public school budget cuts now threaten to undermine those hard-won successes.

Director(s): Katie Dellamaggiore

Executive Producer(s): Robert McLellan, Geoff Gibson

Producer(s): Katie Dellamaggiore, Nelson Dellamaggiore, Brian Schulz

Cinematographer: Brian Schulz

Editor(s): Nelson Dellamaggiore

Music: B. Satz

Additional Credits: Co-Executive Producer: Neal Flaherty, Outreach Director: Kali Holloway

Katie Dellamaggiore has worked on several award-winning documentaries including 39 Pounds of Love, To Die in Jerusalem, American Teen and After the Storm. She directed UR Life Online for A&E Classroom, which explored teen cyber-bullying and received an Emmy nomination for Single Camera Editing. Brooklyn Castle is her feature directorial debut.

Public Film Contact

Katie Dellamaggiore
Rescued Media
info@brooklyncastle.com
347.687.1009