But it's a fact of filmmaking for the broad filmgoing public in the West, and Queen of Katwe subtly employs those very same audience expectations and biases to suggest one experience is in store for us, before revealing ever-deepening emotional layers of brutal honesty and heartbreakingly desperate hope as we come to fully understand Katwe, and the dreams and realities of those who live there. It is sad that so many mainstream audiences often need to be coached into stepping beyond their own assumptions in order to perceive the resonance of stories about people from other nations and other cultures, to connect with those people and relate to their struggles. It does this so you will not resist, so you won't hold the characters and story at arms length - instead, you relax and you take them into your heart, you put aside the barriers so many Western audiences carry with them into films that fall outside of our personal comfort zones, and you recognize the fundamental common humanity of people and the universal truths we all hold in our hearts. It lulls you into a sense this will be entertaining without asking you to consider questions of privilege and without expecting you to look deeper at poverty, at sexism, at loss. It feels like a family-friendly approach, bright and well-lit and providing a buffer between the audience and the pain of the characters' lives. The film's first 15 to 20 minutes establish the characters and their world in broad strokes that at first seem to understate the impact of the harsher realities of their lives, letting us glimpse it yet providing enough sense of humor and pleasantries to prevent too much discomfort or sorrow from dominating our introduction to Phiona Mutesi's life in Katwe, a slum in Uganda's capital city of Kampala. It's an important story to tell on its own merits, made all the more important because its themes actually speak to the film's own existence within an operating reality that too often prevents such films from being considered or made by studios. So Queen of Katwe is a testament to the sort of filmmaking we need. It matters because these are the sorts of films we should see all the time from studios, but it stands out precisely because we don't in fact see anywhere near enough of them. It matters because it was filmed entirely on location in Africa, in the actual city regions where the real-life story took place, with a large cast of citizens of Katwe involved in the production. It matters because of its cast of people of color, in an African nation, telling their stories with the same importance and matter-of-fact presentation of their world and culture as any other Hollywood drama. It matters because it is a serious, high-quality drama adults can fully appreciate without bringing children, but it's also a wonderful family film with much to say to young viewers as well. It matters because it's an excellent film with strong performances. To this list we can add Queen of Katwe, Disney's new true story that enters limited release this weekend before expanding the following week. Seal, Searching for Bobby Fischer, and Fresh -are good and speak to the human condition, or made me feel the way I did about chess when I was younger and aspired to beating my father. There aren't many films about chess, and only a few - The Seventh But that goal is what pushed me to play harder and get better. I kept playing after that (never at a "great" level though), but any further milestones were anticlimactic after I'd beaten my dad. His reason was simply that I didn't need to play him anymore, I need to play people who were better than him so I would get better. The day I finally beat my father was the last time he ever played against me. Not great, but good enough to play against other good players and hold my own. But he indulged me, we played practically every day, and by the time I reached my teens I was a good player. As a child, I played against him constantly, unaware my meager skills were boring to him.