Darkon (film)
Darkon | |
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Directed by | Luke Meyer, Andrew Neel |
Produced by | Tom Davis, Ethan Palmer, Christopher Kikis, Thoma Kikis, Nicholas Levis, Cherise Wolas, Alan Zelenetz |
Starring | Skip Lipman, Daniel McCarthur, Rebecca Thurmond, Kenyon Wells |
Cinematography | Karl F. Schroder, Hillary Spera |
Edited by | Brad Turner |
Music by | Jonah Rapino |
Distributed by | Independent Film Channel (TV) |
Release date | 2006 |
Running time | 89 Minutes |
Country | USA |
Language | English |
Darkon is an award-winning feature-length documentary film that follows the real-life adventures of the Darkon Wargaming Club in Baltimore, Maryland, a group of fantasy live-action role-playing (LARP) gamers. The film was directed by Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer.
Darkon premiered and won the Best Documentary Audience Award at the 2006 South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Darkon is an official selection playing at Hot Docs, Maryland Film Festival, Silverdocs, LA Film Festival, Britdoc and Melbourne International Film Festival.
The film was produced by Ovie Entertainment and SeeThink Productions.
The strangest type of black comedy, the desire to laugh at the people featured in the movie fades quickly, and the desire to pity them takes over. The documentary focuses on a group of socially mal-adjusted misfits who use the world of pretend as an escape from their self-described tedious, boring, or otherwise miserable lives.
It cleverly points out how escape through fantasy can only serve to make real life problems worse, as several of the major characters have massive real life problems they ignore in favor or pretending to be someone else.
The viewer is left not knowing if he should laugh at the over done seriousness put towards a game of pretend, or cry over the sea of isolation, loneliness, and misery that surrounds the major characters.
Reviews
- The Hollywood Reporter
- Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine
- Efilmcritic.com
- FilmThreat.com
- PopMatters.com
- GreenCine Daily
- Aint It Cool News
- ATX Magazine
- CityPaper.com
- ChicagoTribune.com
- Slate.com