Back to the drawing board for Brownsville

Back to the drawing board for documentary about chess in Brownsville schools
July 21, 2010 9:28 PM

Gary Long
The Brownsville Herald

BROWNSVILLE — Supporters of a documentary film about the Brownsville school district’s chess prowess are going back to the drawing board with the school system to find a way to make the project work.

During the school board’s meeting Tuesday, the trustees directed Superintendent Brett Springston to try to work something out with one of the nine companies that submitted proposals to produce a documentary film about the history and development of the district’s chess programs.

The directive followed a 4-2 vote against Springston’s recommendation to reject all nine proposals. Springston said the school system simply doesn’t have $150,000 to spend on a chess movie when HBO did a perfectly good job already. He was referring to a 15-minute segment about Brownsville chess that aired June 22 on HBO’s sports series Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.

The school district requested proposals for the chess documentary after an independent film company associated with actor Edward James Olmos began work on such a film and asked for $150,000 from the district to help fund the project.

The company, Higher Ground Entertainment Inc., and its nonprofit Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Education, made a presentation to the school board in February, showing a trailer for the film, tentatively titled The Kings of Brownsville.

However, the school district is barred by law from making a gift of public funds, which is what it would be doing if it donated to the film project, attorneys for the school system cautioned.

Here is the full article.