Chess is War - An Interview with Liz Garbus
- Posted: 30th Jun 2011
- Category: Articles
by Laura Thornley
Liz Garbus is one of the biggest female names in documentary- she has won numerous awards as both director and producer. Her new documentary Bobby Fischer Against the World looks set for similar things. Tracing the life of child chess prodigy Bobby Fischer from awkward child to American Cold War weapon to public enemy number one, the film is superbly entertaining and gripping. Garbus took some time to meet up with Laura Thornley at DFG to discuss the current trend in portrait documentary, empathising with a man like Bobby and what it takes to be a female director in the upper echelons.
Can you tell me what made you decide to make the film?
I was on an aeroplane in January 2008 doing what I get to do on aeroplanes but I rarely get to do at anytime in my life: reading a newspaper. On the front page of the Times was Bobby’s obituary. I was reading it thinking this would be amazing material for a documentary. I was on my way to the Sundance Film Festival so I was really creatively inspired during that week. I tried to look for other things that had been done but what I found was that there had been no other feature films that had dealt with his entire life, not from a narrative point of view and not from a documentary point of view. There were shorter biographical features but nothing that had the whole scope of his life. When I began digging at the surface I realised this story was more rich and complex than I had first imagined.
It seems quite different from other work you have done (you are well-known as a social/political director) what made you approach it in the way that you did?
I want every film [I make] to take me somewhere else and get me out of my comfort zone in creative and storytelling mode. I want to have to work really hard and challenge myself in how I make films. I think with Bobby Fischer… there was an aesthetic opportunity because the interviews could be arranged in a certain time or place, they weren’t running and gunning which some of my other films had been. I wanted the challenge of how I could make it beautiful and stylistically speak of Bobby’s story. From a storytelling point of view, I never really worked with material that could be so entertaining. The match of ’72 [between Fischer and Boris Spassky] was obviously culturally and politically important but it was also just great entertainment. I wanted to work on that part of my storytelling; to make something that was as nail-biting in my 93 minutes as it was then.
Chess is stereotypically a dull sport, what techniques did you employ to create this excitement?
Well you know the film isn’t about chess per se – the film is about a great match of 1972 where two individuals, who had the weight of the world on their shoulders, wanted to sit down at a board over x amount of weeks to play and see who would win. These were two big fellows who weren’t alone in their rivalry – historically it was a big rivalry [between America and The Soviet Union]. The two countries were armed to the teeth and constantly on the point of brinkmanship – to have this embodied in two ‘chess players’ was just a fantastic metaphor. Of course chess is war on the board. The pawns are the frontline of the army, the little guys, then you have the king and queen who have to be protected. The metaphors just build on top of each other and then explode into great storytelling. The film doesn’t tell you about chess and it doesn’t reveal the secrets of chess. It appreciates chess in the great metaphoric sense that it was appreciated at the time. And I think hopefully gives you an insight into what made Bobby so brilliant.
Perhaps you can talk about the footage you used – it brought a lot of comedy value.
The footage was wonderful to work with – it was sort of in that sweet spot – it’s shot on film so it looks good but its not so old that you can’t relate to it. We would have the greatest time in the editing room for instance when we got the images of Bobby working out or stretching his legs in a tiny room watching Jack Lorraine on TV. It was part of the style, the cultural discourse of the time. We certainly wanted to let it shine and do its work by itself.
Bobby must have made a lot of enemies towards the end of his life, how receptive were the interviewees to take part?
At the end of his life in Iceland he had a group of people, very loyal fans, who were with him in his final days. They believed very firmly that Bobby was not mentally ill and that he had been given a bad rap by the media and so they were incredibly distrustful of me. They… were very concerned about what perspective I was going to bring on Bobby. We did not manage to include representatives from that period. Throughout his life he made very good friends who were supportive of him and would actually advocate that he get treatment or that he had to abandon the ideology. But he managed to cut most of those people out. By the time his life was ending he had very few of those people in his life in any real way. We do know that he kept in touch with his mother and his sister but they were so far away – he didn’t really have anyone from his early years who was with him at the end.
Do you think there is a rise in portrait documentary styles? What do you think motivates directors to do this?
For me there have always been great ones – When We Were Kings, the Ali film, John Lennon - there have always been these national icons with complex stories and it makes great material for filmmakers. I really think that supports the point that truth can be stranger than fiction. When you look at incredible heights that people reach and then their falls – if it were fiction you wouldn’t believe it. But for me, it was a wonderful narrative opportunity to explore a life that was not just [Bobby’s] own, it was a life that was involved in American history, cold war history and global history. It created his life and it became part of ours.
The film seems symptomatic of how we treat celebrities also.
I think one of the things [the film addresses] is exactly that and we see it today with child stars. A child that’s six or seven years old subjected to the spotlight, their social development is completely changed. And Bobby was an early example of that. Of course there have always been stars but the relentless media attention has only increased and I think that Bobby certainly had a level of mistrust that was because of that, and rightly so. There were probably a lot of people around him who just wanted a piece of him, who just wanted to be in his glow. And of course the media was not easy on him because he was an awkward kid – but it’s difficult to know at that point if he was an awkward kid or was he suffering or diagnosable – we will never know. He had a real love hate relationship with the media and that certainly had an impact on his development.
Can you explain what motivates you as a filmmaker on a more general level?
Big stories. That’s the kind of answer everyone gives, but it's true. You look for stories that have conflict, meaning beyond themselves; that teach us about the world and about people. For me, I think the thing that might unite my films… is empathy. I haven’t made a film where I am not empathetic with my main character. Whether it be a convicted murder or rapist, I try to take the viewer on a journey that a human being is larger than this one worst act. Bobby Fischer is an example of this. He didn’t commit a crime but many people wrote him off. If you look at his life in total…you feel empathy for this boy who…really had way too much on him, he had no support. In the Soviet Union, these guys who were going out to win the world championship, they had a whole team of support. Yet the Government instructed him to go and needed him to win but there was no real relationship or support for him, even from the time he was a kid. At the end of the day we can feel empathy for him, he kind of had the world on his shoulders but didn’t have the protective barrier of family or team, and was on his own.
What advice do you have for other female directors?
We need you! That’s my advice. I think that documentary is a more welcoming world than narrative, which is a sad statement because as the levels go up there are fewer and fewer women in those upper echelons. I think that 17% [it's 7% in the UK] of directors are women. I would imagine that in documentary the proportion of women is greater, but still clearly not equal. I think people need to have that belief that the industry will welcome you. If you keep pushing, if you figure out what you want to say and you say it clearly, there is a space for that.
What’s next?
It’s a little too early to talk about it, but it will fit with [your portrait question] the theme of filmmakers being more and more biographical with their work.
Bobby Fischer Against the World is released on 15th July. To enter our competition for tickets to the screening click here.
Read Laura Thornley's review here.