HBO’s Real Sports premieres episode about Brownsville Chess
June 20, 2010 10:27 PM
By LAURA TILLMAN,
The Brownsville Herald
Brownsville’s inspiring story of children overcoming obstacles to become chess champions continues to broaden its audience.
Over the past month award-winning sports reporter Mary Carillo made two trips to Brownsville with the crew of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel to create a feature-length segment that will air Tuesday evening on the Emmy award-winning newsmagazine.
Carillo took a breather between recording voice-over for the segment and boarding a plane to cover Wimbledon to talk about her time interviewing the educators, parents and students who joined forces over the past two decades to make Brownsville a nationally-renowned home of chess.
“It’s just a wonderful story,” Carillo said. “This little border town in Texas is going up against all these high-powered schools in big cities with big money.”
The profile is likely to be more in depth than the traditional two and three-minute features seen on network sports programs. Real Sports has repeatedly won awards for its hard-hitting approach to sports reporting. The program probes into the motivations of the competitors it profiles, looking for the human story behind the trophies.
After the premiere of Carillo’s 12-minute feature, the episode will replay all month long on HBO and HBO2.
“The whole experience was tremendous, we couldn’t have had a better experience covering this story,” said Carillo, who had never covered chess in more than 30 years as a sports reporter. “We all came away so impressed with the community and its people and the passion for educating children.”
Higher Ground Entertainment is also in the process of making a feature length documentary about Brownsville’s successful use of chess to both win medals and improve performance in the classroom. Tentatively titled, “From Pawns to Kings,” producers hope the film will inspire other school districts to adopt chess into their curriculum.
Source: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com
Thank you Susan for helping chess in Brownsville grow.
Hey great job Susan,seems like the fun is just beginning!!! Somehow ill have to get the Ultramodern Stragey into the school system or Dr.Paul gunna kill me! hehe.