February 2020 - 31

Golden Gate, Silver Screen

A

San Francisco screening of
John McAllister's film, "Double
Dummy," started out as an
effort to interest more young people
in the game. But it wound up as more
of a celebration of the local bridge
community - and particularly the
students and teachers of the Center for
Bridge Education (CBE), the Bay Area
organization that seeks to bring new
players into the game.
Several dozen bridge aficionados of
all ages and skill levels - and even a few
interested non-players - came to the
late afternoon/early evening screening
at a theater near the Stonestown
shopping center on the west side of
town. The Sunset Bridge Club, which
holds its games nearby and is run by
Unit 506 President Tom Stillman,
sponsored the event, which was also
heavily promoted by CBE members.
Organizers reported that more than
150 tickets were sold, many of them

I'll have popcorn with my bridge:
Chloe Chow (left) and Nancy Yu enjoy a
snack at the screening of "Double Dummy."

BY YARDENA ARAR, San Francisco CA

to an anonymous benefactor who
subsidized their distribution to young
players and their families.
The film chronicles the experiences
of the USA1 team (three partnerships
and one non-playing captain) at
the World Youth Championships in
Taicang, China, in 2012, while also
focusing on the personal stories of
team members and their families
and mentors. Several members of
Unit 506 who attended the screening
remembered one of the team members,
Adam Kaplan, from when he lived
(briefly) in San Francisco and played
at the Quicktricks bridge club in the
Castro.
Afterwards, several members
of the CBE talked about their own
experiences. Nancy Yu, 10, said
she competes in an array of events,
including unit games, online games,
and the Youth North American Bridge
Championships - which is all the
more remarkable because her parents
don't play bridge. She said she enjoys
the partnership aspects of bridge,
especially the communication through
bidding and signals. "It's like bridge is
its own language," she said.
As for the film, she said, "I liked the
way they worked as a team, and not just
a partnership."
Brandon Wong, 25, a former CBE
student who now occasionally teaches,
said the film was "eye-opening" in its
depiction of bridge as more than just
a game. "It has so much potential for
connection beyond the table. It really
is a great way to meet people from all
walks of life."
Wong said he has made some good

Old friends: Brandon Wong (right) and fellow
CBE alumnus bridge player Edmund Wu at
the screening of "Double Dummy"

friends through the game. Some
non-players who joined Brandon and
several other players at dinner after the
screening said they better understood
the attraction of bridge, he said. "Now
that I'm older, I really appreciate that
aspect of it."
Deborah Drysdale, who is on the CBE
board, enjoyed hearing about other
organizations that help nurture young
players - and the contributions they
make to the greater community. "Our
kids, our community" was a refrain she
picked up from the film.
In supporting the event, "we wanted
to gather the bridge community,
young and old, new and seasoned, to
watch a movie about young people
playing bridge," she said. "We hoped
folks would encourage their friends,
whatever age, to play, countering the
impression that bridge is mostly for
old people. Bottom line is that playing
bridge is like playing 'war' with a
partner, and a lot more fun and exciting
than playing video games."
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February 2020 Bridge Bulletin

31
February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2020
