Computer Chess (film)

Computer Chess is a 2013 independent comedydrama film written and directed by Andrew Bujalski. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, and subsequently screened at such festivals as South by Southwest and the Maryland Film Festival.

In 1980, an annual gathering of teams of idiosyncratic nerds compete in a nondescript California hotel to see which of their computer programs can best the others at computer chess. A grandmaster Gerald Peary presides as master of ceremonies with a videographer and microphone in tow. Clunky, primitive personal computers are carted from room to room. Bad haircuts, dorky shirts, birth control glasses, and other social impedimenta are ubiquitous. Bull sessions on the dystopian possibilities of artificial intelligence are pursued. The Pentagons interest in the goingson is intimated. The only female geek Robin Schwartz in attendance is repeatedly hailed and welcomed by the MC.Simultaneously at the same hotel, a human potential movement group the seekers has occasional runins with the geeks, generating awkward and humorous moments. A painfully shy young computer programmer Patrick Riester attracts the interest of a swinging older couple Cyndi Williams and Chris Doubek. The twin threads of spiritual exploration and cybernetic innovation imply an unspoken and implicit hidden connection. In a startling final scene, a prostitute apparently solicited by the young programmer reveals herself to be infinitely more than expected. ........

Source: Wikipedia