Director Rory Kennedy, is appearing for the 10th time at Sundance with her documentary about Judit Polgár, a Hungarian girl who shocked the world by entering and rising to the top of international chess. The documentary follows the early life of three female siblings whose father implemented a plan for his daughters to study and succeed in chess challenging the male-dominated system.
As a non-chess playing observer, I was amazed at the techniques Kennedy used to chronicle the career of Polgár and explain it in a way that even someone lacking the knowledge of the game could be drawn in.
Polgár and her two sisters were raised in Hungary by a father obsessed with mentoring his daughters to succeed at the highest level, using chess as the vehicle. Judit, the most successful of the three, became the youngest grandmaster in history and was determined to beat the best of the best, Garry Kasparov.
Kennedy admitted that of the 20 documentaries she has produced, this one of the most difficult due to Polgár living in the former East Bloc and much of the archival footage either being unavailable or extremely difficult to access. She also praised Kasparov for his bravery in participating in the film with one-on-one interviews.
