Georgian filmmakers' documentary 'Glory to the Queen' in South East European Film Festival programme
Nona Gaprindashvili, who won five Women's World Chess Championships between 1962-1975, in 'Glory to the Queen'. Image via South East European Film Festival organisers.
Tweet 
Share
Glory to the Queen, a documentary work on legendary Georgian women chess players of the 20th century, will be introduced to viewers seeking to discover "The New East" cinema at the South East European Film Festival in Los Angeles starting next week.
With its focus on works and filmmakers from South-East Europe, the festival will screen the Free Zone Film Festival Audience Prize-winning film by Tatia Skhirtladze and Ana Khazaradze in its feature documentary programme.
Marking its West Coast premiere, the Georgian-Austrian co-production will narrate to the audience the story of how four women chess players from the country dominated the international competition for years, and explore their present lives.
Documentary Films directed by Women Directors of South East Europe that you can screen starting April 28th-May 5th !!
— SEEfest (@seefilmla) April 16, 2021
Purchase tix @: https://t.co/qTfpKtjatb festival info & updates: https://t.co/UyxhLgNIY2#SEEfest2021 #film #womeninfilm #Director #documentary #filmmaking pic.twitter.com/vxGFAgjTGu
A summary for the documentary by the festival said it revealed "their interwoven biographies" and was a "chronicle of their lasting legacy". It is centred around Nona Gaprindashvili, Nana Alexandria, Maia Chiburdanidze and Nana Ioseliani, who all made their mark on the chess scene in the second half of the past century.
Between 1962-1988, the Women's World Chess Championship saw Gaprindashvili and Chiburdanidze sweep all 10 titles, while Alexandria and Ioseliani finished as runner-ups in 1975 and 1988 respectively.
The feat became a focus for Skhirtladze and Khazaradze, who see the film as not only a documentary look at the history, but also as a feminist statement. The former told Film New Europe it was a "chess film that does not focus on the technique of the sport so much as the metaphor behind it - the struggles on the road towards self-fulfilment and the revolt against a powerful male-dominated system".
The two filmmakers have also talked about how they had to work to build relationships of trust with some of the former world champions before they could use personal stories for the documentary.
The filming even spawned what the chess legends themselves called a "historic moment" when they were brought together by the crew on a train, reuniting the players for the first time in three decades.
Featuring works representing 18 countries of the Balkans and the Caucasus, the South East European Film Festival will run between April 28-May 5.
The event will honour author Dubravka Ugrešić (The Age of Skin, Baba Yaga Laid an Egg) with its Legacy Award, while Marija Škaričić (Mare) and Jasna Djuričić (Quo Vadis, Aida?) will receive the inaugural Mira Furlan Memorial Acting Award.
Georgian directors Tatia Skhirtladze and Ana Khazaradze have been distinguished for their documentary Glory to the Queen, a film taking a look at world-famous legacy of Soviet-era Georgian women chess players, with an audience prize at the Free Zone Film Festival in Serbia.
An upcoming documentary film will celebrate four women from Georgia who "revolutionised women's chess" in the second half of the 20th century, with co-directors Tatia Skhirtladze and Ana Khazaradze working to premiere Glory to the Queen this year.
Film director Salomé Jashi's new documentary Taming the Garden collected two awards including the Best Film prize at Mexico's UNAM film festival on Sunday.
ParisDOC, an industry platform of the Cinéma du réel film festival, will showcase director Maradia Tsaava's documentary Water Has No Borders as one of the work-in-progress film projects in its 2021 edition.