Trailer: “Bobby Fischer Against the World”

One documentary that keeps eluding me this year is “Bobby Fischer Against the World.” Directed by Oscar nominee Liz Garbus (“The Farm: Angola, USA”), the film premiered at Sundance, where I couldn’t fit it in, and later screened at the Miami International Film Festival, where I again missed it. It’s about to debut on HBO on June 6 (airing through September 11). Before then, though, you can see the doc on the big screen in NYC for one night only next Thursday, June 2, as part of IFC Center’s Stranger Than Fiction series (the summer season of which begins tonight). Garbus will be there for a Q&A, also, so be sure to get tickets in advance here.

As for what it’s about, this should be clear from the title. Of course, people thought “Searching for Bobby Fischer” was going to be about the chess legend, so maybe a title with his name isn’t exactly so obvious. But it is about Fischer, and “the disturbingly high price [he] paid to achieve his legendary success and the resulting toll it took on his psyche.” Also of note: this is the last work edited by the late, great Karen Schmeer, who was killed in 2010.

Watch a trailer made by Dogwoof, who will distribute the doc in the UK July 15, after the jump.

Advertisement