When Al Jazeera opened the call for submissions for its second Viewfinder series in February 2013 (a program on Al Jazeera English that seeks to develop new talent in partnership with committed and experienced documentary forums around the world), Javier Hayrabedian began to think about which of the stories in his project notebook might be suitable for the call. In 2012, he directed the series Clubes con Historia, produced by Grah for TV Ciudad (both hold degrees in Audiovisual Communication from Universidad ORT Uruguay). There they met Pedro Lamas, president of Walter Estrada’s Los Trebejos club. "During filming, Pedro told me things about his life, like how he taught classes in prison; I found it interesting and, in a way, I kept it in my memory."
They submitted their proposal based on Pedro’s story. After being shortlisted, Al Jazeera requested more information about the upcoming documentary and the filmmakers; while speaking with Pedro, they learned about Luis, an inmate who had been one of Pedro’s students in prison, who later went on to earn a teaching degree and taught classes after Pedro retired.
The project was selected from among more than 530 screenplays from across Latin America, allowing the team to participate in the workshop held as part of Doc Montevideo 2013 in Uruguay. Jean Garner served as the series’ executive producer for Al Jazeera English, Patricia Boero was the project’s mentor and executive producer, and Diego Blanco was in charge of editing.
“There were about ten documentary filmmakers from Latin America, and we knew that five projects would be selected for production, although in the end eight were chosen, and *Ajedrez, clases particulares* was one of them.”
“For the workshop, we had to shoot a short teaser to introduce the characters in some way, so we had to travel to Maldonado and talk to Luis. It wasn’t easy to convince him—you have to remember that he’d only been out of prison for a few months, and having someone show up who wants to make a documentary about your life isn’t easy.” After many conversations, Luis agreed to tell his story.
Once the workshop was over, filming began. Hayrabedian, Grah, and the rest of the crew traveled to Maldonado—where Luis lives with his daughter and granddaughter—and then spent eight days in Montevideo, where, in the story, Luis meets up with Pedro to organize a chess tournament at the Comcar prison.
Luis's Story
“Luis Cuello is someone who ‘seeks to integrate into society through chess,’” Hayrabedian sums up. He has a project to teach chess and, in a way, “give something back to society; through this project, he is trying to transform his life and give it new meaning.”
“What motivated me to make this documentary was the desire to tell a story about freedom,” says the filmmaker. “The concept of freedom and whether or not Luis would be able to transform his life was the most exciting part.”
In Hayrabedian’s view, what interested Al Jazeera was that “a former prisoner transformed his life through chess—that is, a strong character who, through a game recognized worldwide, moved the pieces of his life in pursuit of a goal: to win the game and have a better life.” The documentary filmmaker said that “we worked extensively on the parallels between chess and life, black and white, confinement and freedom: all of these were concepts that are, in some way, present in the documentary.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01WV20GvcFI