Darkon

This is a documentary about Live Action Role Players, a rather noble and delightful type of gaming, that some people may find a little too far out of their realm to understand. It is interesting and enjoyable for any nerd and is also a unique type of documentary. I recommend this to anyone who has every played d&d, enjoyed magic, or any other type of role-playing endeavors. :) It is fun and light-hearted. It is not sad at all. Afterwards you feel admiration and respect to the people who can stay "in character" for a weekend straight -certainly not an easy task to pull off. I would consider this film a great accomplishment for gamers out there. :)

As someone who has been steeped in a lot of fantasy role playing games, films, music and other similar types of media all of my life this is an incredible experience. I can see why there are people who find this mediocre, but to me its one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. Yes, there are quite a few moments that are laughable, and it does get a bit silly, but in my opinion its one of the highlights. It has a big heart and the people who made it and are in it are passionate about what they are doing and to me that is admirable. The overwhelming feeling that I get when watching this is a feeling of inspiration, inspiration to not take life so seriously and to not be ashamed of being a "geek". I love this so much and have watched it many times. If you love documentaries or if fantasy is a genre that you are interested in I would highly recommend this.

One of the few non-comedic movies by gamers, about gamers, and ultimately for gamers, Darkon (Ovie Productions/Seethink Productions, 2006) is a documentary that focuses on the activities of the Darkon Wargaming Club, a fantasy live-action role-playing (LARP) group in Baltimore, Maryland.

Moreso than movies of any sort by non-gamers about role-playing gaming (e.g., the execrable Mazes and Monsters), Darkon explores the purposes, positive aspects, and benefits of the hobby and the motives people have for participating in it. While it also hints at the all-consuming effect RPGs can have on their participants, it is ultimately more of an apologia for the hobby than an examination of it.

From a technical point of view, Darkon is well filmed, excellently scored, and structurally sound. One thing it does not do, however, is explain what a LARP is. Naturally, this does not matter much as far as gamers are concerned, but the absence of such explanation severely limits the value this film could have had as a tool for telling the non-gaming world about something about which it has limited awareness and little understanding. It is also a little on the long side, with multiple, interchangeable battle scenes, some of which could have been cut in lieu of some interviews with some third parties who could have helped put LARPing and RPGing in context.

A product of its times, Darkon draws as much on the genre of reality television as it does on that of documentary, with asides to the camera by its various subjects that shed light on their motivations and relationships in and out of the game. Depending on whether one likes reality TV or not, this could be seen as either a benefit or a detriment.

Some of the costuming and props used by the Darkon LARPers are impressive, with especial kudos going to the Dark Elf players (who do not appear in the film nearly enough). Firing catapults and a wooden fortress that is actually burned at the end of a battle demonstrate the willingness of this club's members to go above and beyond in their gaming.

Overall, Darkon is worth a watch by anyone interested in seeing a particular side of the gaming genre. It is likely, however, to be just as confusing as it is enlightening to outsiders, and does not go nearly as far as it could have toward producing an understanding of the hobby to those not already familiar with it.

Darkon is 93 minutes long. It premiered and won the Best Documentary Audience Award at the 2006 South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, and is an official selection playing at the Hot Docs, Maryland Film Festival, Silverdocs, LA Film Festival, Britdoc and Melbourne International Film Festival. It aired on the Independent Film Channel Nov. 12, and that might thus be a good place to keep an eye out for it.

Michael J. Varhola, Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

Darkon is Live Action Role-Playing, where the characters in the game assume different personas of their own creation and partake of different warring nations and factions in the Darkon universe. Not entirely unlike traditional Dungeons & Dragons, except the focus is not upon the stat-sheets and one's imagination, but the actual grandiose foam-weapon battles between armies.

The documentary focuses on a drawn-out Darkon campaign fought between two warring faction leaders: Skip Lipman/Bannor (he's Bannor in Darkon), and Kenyon Wells/Keldar. Of the two, Skip is the more likable character, a stay-at-home dad with the utmost exuberance for Darkon's potential as a fulfilling and self-empowering creative channel. Kenyon/Keldar seems to stand for similar things, but then he doesn't take the Darkon fantasy as seriously as the other members of the documentary. Instead he uses it as a medium for him to channel his expansive, greedy determination.What is revealed by all this, is that these Darkon characters are not necessarily escapes or pure projections in another universe, but simply extended, exaggerated branches of their respective personalities inside the world of Darkon.

That isn't to say Darkon is a strange, negative or absurd enterprise by any means. In fact, the documentary is positive for making the viewer re-examine all the real Live Action Role-playing and fantasy elements that take place in our communities (American football and sports, martial arts and "Reality-Based Self-Defense", New Agers and "shamans", yoga, religion, etc.) because they have long since been accepted by mainstream society as normal. But when fantasies become vivid enough to the ones enacting them, those fantasies bleed into real life and how we develop as members of our daily communities.

Everything a Doc could be.

Seriously... "Darkon" Directors Andrew Neel & Luke Meyers manage to cover all angles of a relatively unfamiliar topic – a full-contact adult war-gaming society – practically leaving no questions unanswered. Who are these guys? Who marries them? And what of their kids? It's all there and it's all worth it. It's also a very fair outlook on their lives, making it easy to both sympathize with them AND laugh at them. e.g. It's pretty ridiculous to watch these characters swinging foam swords 20 meters from a parking lot of minivans, and yet when the picture noticeably receives a boost in budget halfway through, suddenly incorporating sweeping crane shots, one can't help but feel happy for these guys, who are finally starring in their own epic.

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