New York Sun - Weekend Heroes On the Path to Glory

Weekend Heroes On the Path to Glory
BY GRADY HEDNRIX
September 14, 2007

LINK

There is great upheaval in the realm. The peoples of Darkon grow weary of war. To stop the relentless spread of the cruel Mordomian Empire, Bannor of Laconia faces the armies of Keldar on the field of battle. The air trembles with the clash of arms. Challenges are issued. Treachery is done. And there will be duct tape. Lots of duct tape. Welcome to "Darkon," land of the LARPers.

LARP-ing ("live action role playing") involves normal men and women pretending to be the inhabitants of a fantasy world and fighting pretend battles for pretend land in their pretend country. It's "Dungeons and Dragons" played on soccer fields by people dressed in homemade armor, with shields and swords wrapped in foam and held together by the aforementioned tape. The documentary "Darkon" could easily have become an excuse to poke fun at other peoples' passions, but it's a credit to directors Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel that it's actually a chronicle of true heroism.

The battle between the cruel Keldar and the beleaguered Bannor is also a battle between Kenyon Wells, whose parents are thrilled that the game has given their introverted son an injection of self-confidence, and Skip Lipman, a stay-at-home dad who was fired from his family business for punching his brother in the mouth. For them, "Darkon" is less of a silly hobby than a serious attempt to keep their dreams alive in a world where a minimum-wage job is as close to heroism as they may ever come.

The LARP-ers of "Darkon" show real courage by opening their hearts and exposing their deepest dreams to potential ridicule. As one young man says, "I hope that the game gives me the confidence to one day maybe, you know, go up and start talking to ... a girl." That kind of willingness to reveal oneself so baldly is rare in the world. In fact, it's practically heroic.

NEW YORK TIMES - Weekend Warriors

Weekend Warriors
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
September 14, 2007

LINK

Every other Sunday, in the fields and playgrounds of suburban Baltimore, a medieval fantasy world known as Darkon materializes. There, more than 200 role-playing adults brandish foam swords and elaborately plotted identities in service to a complex saga of blood and glory.

That saga, and the ordinary Joes and Janes who embody it, is the fascinating subject of “Darkon,” Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer’s thoughtful documentary about a subculture that invites ridicule more often than respect. Yet the weekend warriors of “Darkon” are more than just social rejects in homemade chain mail. “I’ve always felt like I was kind of born out of time,” says Skip Lipman, a k a Bannor of Laconia, a stay-at-home dad bitter over his exclusion from his father’s business.

For Mr. Lipman and others, the immersive appeal of live-action role-playing (LARP to the initiated) offers an escape from low self-esteem and a world without heroes or meaning. “Playing Keldar helped me become the man I wanted to be,” explains Kenyon Wells, whose character’s freedom to claim land, hire elvish mercenaries and purchase magic spells eases the restraints of his real-life office job.

Eloquent and occasionally touching, “Darkon” is haphazardly photographed but unfailingly generous toward subjects who exhibit an astonishing degree of self-awareness. “It’s like watching the TV, but you’re the hero. Who doesn’t want that?” one enthusiast asks. Who indeed?

DARKON

Opens today in Manhattan.

Directed by Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer; directors of photography, Karl Schroder and Hillary Spera; edited by Brad Turner; music by Jonah Rapino; produced by Ethan Palmer, Tom Davis, Christopher Kikis, Thoma Kikis, Nicholas Levis, Cherise Wolas and Alan Zelenetz; released by IFC Docs, Uncut. At the Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 93 minutes. This film is not rated.

NEW YORK POST - MEDIEVAL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN

MEDIEVAL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN
By V.A. MUSETTO

3 out of 4 stars

September 14, 2007 -- MY weekends are normally quiet and include watching a few movies, brunching on pancakes at Cowgirl on Hudson Street, and maybe perusing film books and magazines at St. Mark's Bookshop in the East Village.

Nothing too strenuous; certainly nothing like what an odd collection of geeks does every other Sunday in a Baltimore field.

There, anywhere from 150 to 300 people - young and old, male and female - enter an imaginary medieval world they call Darkon. They don elaborate costumes and armor and proceed to beat the crap out of each other with rubber weapons.

"Darkon," a documentary by Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer, examines this strange world.

Most participants say they use Darkon to escape their humdrum lives, which might include working at Starbucks.

Beckie, a 28-year-old single mom and former stripper, says Darkon is the only place where she's in control of her own life. Stay-at-home dad Skip explains: "We're explorers . . . We want to live out our adventures." And Daniel hopes Darkon will help him lose pounds and find girls.

Neel and Meyer approach their subjects with open minds. Running around Baltimore in medieval armor isn't everyone's chalice of wine, they seem to be saying - but who are we to judge?

vam@nypost.com

DARKON

***

Weekend warriors.

Running time: 93 minutes. Not rated (mock violence). At the Cinema Village, 12th Street, east of Fifth Avenue.

PASTE MAGAZINE - Darkon - Directors Interview

Darkon: "Everybody wants to be a hero."
Writer: Josh Jackson
Film Clips, Published online on 12 Sep 2007

Every other weekend, aspiring warriors, dark elves and Amazonians gather on soccer fields in Baltimore, crafting their own mythologies and dressing as warriors of the imaginary realm Darkon. In Darkon, filmmakers Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer do a tremendous job of sharing why people participate in live-action role-playing (LARPing). Capturing the full contact battles, the behind the scenes political turmoil inside the game, and the lives of the players away from the game, Neel and Meyer’s first film makes for an intriguing and endearing two hours.

Paste: Where did the idea for this come from?
Andrew Neel: When I was a senior in college I wrote a screenplay about the present day life of Dungeons and Dragons players. Through the research for that script I discovered LARPing. I actually rewrote the script integrating LARP in place of D&D. Finally I decided that the best way to get at the material—at the things that fascinated me about the behavior—was to go shoot it. I met up with Luke at a wedding and asked him if he wanted to direct it with me. We spent the next couple years of our lives embedded in the Darkonian culture.

P: What were the original themes that you wanted to explore and did they differ much from where you ended up going with the documentary?
Luke Meyer: Originally, we wanted to look at what drew people to a hobby that was so generally unaccepted, far outside the mainstream. We had some feeling that, in general, it was a reaction to things we all experience in the modern world. I don’t think that we ever approached people with this as a pre-determined answer, but in the end I think we found that the film retained a very similar theme to the one we saw at the beginning.

AN: As time passed, our shared concepts changed and evolved. But our basic interest and thesis about the phenomenon stayed true to our original inspiration, I think. There’s this cliché about filmmakers going through this over-determined “journey” as they make their film. It’s not always the case. You know why something is interesting to you, you dive into it, it becomes richer, more complex, but the original spark is often the through-line in the film. If your notions about your subject matter change radically during the filming of a project, it probably means that you came into the shooting process with a lot of assumptions. I think both of us try to avoid that at all costs.

P: The most impressive thing about the doc to me was that you rarely felt like you were looking down on the subjects despite an innate nerdiness of LARPing. Was this the result of a conscious choice or simply the result of coming to genuinely like your subjects over time?
LM: Films that look down on their subjects always feel shallow, misguided and often boring. There is an undeniable ridiculousness to LARPing, and LARPers are well aware of it. I think the humor in LARPing shows through in the film, but it doesn’t overshadow the more salient elements of the film (both narrative and philosophical).

AN: I was drawn to this subject matter because I was genuinely fascinated by it. It immediately captured my imagination. The game obviously has a built-in amusement factor, but I think most Darkonians also indulge in the ridiculous humor of what they’re doing. I understand the desire to have the horizon expand beyond the finite everyday reality of our lives. The misty hope that there’s something more out there is something we all want to feel. I think religion is evidence of this longing to somehow transcend the concrete elements of our mundane experience. So “making fun” was never really some thing I think even occurred to me. To the contrary, I was reverent. We indulged with them.

P: How much did you feel like your presence filming changed the actual storyline of Bannor’s quest to topple Keldar?
AN: A lot. The simple fact that the camera is there changes everything even in a reality that is not malleable like Darkon. Darkon’s reality is molded by the characters that play it. The game created what they call a “special adventure” for our film. It’s a battle or series of battles that are fought over multiple events. The “story line,” if you will, was sort of based on real tensions within the realm. The Darkonians devised this scenario very loosely with us, and once the ball was rolling there was no stopping it. It took on a life of its own. Bannor (Skip Lipman) is a very enthusiastic guy, and he funneled his creativity into the moment. Shit, the camera was there—he’s gotta go for it.

LM: Our presence and the presence of the camera definitely encouraged Skip as Bannor to take on the Mordomian Empire. There’s two sides to how this worked. Skip saw the documentary as something that would be great for the game of Darkon. He really wanted the film to be great, and so for that reason he put a lot of effort into his role-playing as he went after Keldar and the Mordomians. In addition, the quest for glory is a big part of Darkon. It’s apparent in the speeches people make and the work and attention they put into their armor. I think the opportunity to have a camera capture that quest was appealing to Skip and many of the other people in the film. If we’re talking in general terms though, I think the presence of a documentary crew always changes the way people act when they get in front of a camera. For some of the larger battles, Andrew and I were involved with the planners of the events. In order to bring a crane and multiple camera units into the mix, we had to know where the action was going to be and that the players have a clear sense of what obstacles would be on the field. These events ran together in a series, an adventure centralizing on a war between Bannor’s Laconia and Mordom, and during this time the film crew was worked into the game-play.

P: I originally saw the film at SXSW. What was that experience like and did that feel like the big break for you?
LM: SXSW was the first time that I’d ever shown any of my work to such a wide audience. The reception of the film was mind blowing for me.

AN: At the time it felt like a big break. But I thought it was a damn good film, so I wouldn’t say I felt lucky per se. I felt like we were getting the attention that we should be getting for a unique film. Then all of us bled and bled and bled as the film found its final resting place. It took a long time for this film to find its home. We’re excited to see it get out into the world.

Darkon opens September 14 at Cinema Village in New York. The film will have its broadcast world premiere on IFC TV November 12 at 9 pm

ChicagoTribune.com - Review - 'Darkon' more than just role playing

`Darkon' more than just role playing
`Darkon' (star)(star)(star)
Michael Esposito
February 23, 2007

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Not so long ago armored warriors met on a great field of battle and wrought the destiny of nations. One suffered a grave defeat while the other rose toward world domination. All of it was captured in the documentary "Darkon," named for the fantasy land that is the object of conquest for the live-action role-playing gamers who don knightly costumes and wield foam swords, axes, spears and the like in weekend combat.

The gamers, based in the Baltimore area, are an interesting cross-section of society. One is a successful businessman who credits his kingly game character with helping him develop valuable real-world leadership skills. Another grew up around fantasy games (his dad ran a traditional tabletop game company), but he finds battling in warrior gear to be more fulfilling. Even a real soldier, returned from combat overseas, joins the action. There are a large number of women gamers as well, including an ex-stripper single mom who lives in her parents' house and says she needs the few hours of controlling her own destiny that the game provides.

In off-battlefield interviews, many gamers reveal that the roles they play in the real world of houses and jobs, their middle-class lifestyles, leave them with a void. There's a sense that one good break along the road could propel some of these folks to greatness, but missed connections have, so far, left them short of their dreams.

The insights into the differences and surprising similarities between real life and game life are profound. When one gamer talks about a setback on the battlefield, because his fellows ignored his orders, and his frustration that it's as if his real life was creeping into his diversion, it tugs at the heart. There are lessons to be learned here, not the least of which is that you should never trust elf mercenaries, no matter how much you pay them.

Running time: 1:30. Showtimes: 8 p.m. Fri., 3:15 p.m. Sat., 6:15 p.m. Mon.-Tue., 8 p.m. Wed. and 6:15 p.m. Thu. at the Gene Siskel Film Center.No MPAA rating (foam-padded violence, some language, traitorous elf mercenaries).

StarTribune.com - Mineapolis Review - Darkon

Movie review: Darkon a hilarious true documentary
By Colin Covert, Star Tribune

Unrated, playground violence. Where: Bell Museum Aud.
If the last Christopher Guest mockumentary left you feeling undernourished, don't miss "Darkon," a hilarious true documentary about a stranger-than-fiction bunch of medieval war-gamers. The hordes of Darkon are a thousand LARPs (live-action role players) who gather on the soccer fields of Baltimore, dressed in knightly regalia and ready to battle with foam rubber swords for the honor of their imaginary homelands.

Directors Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel have a lot of affection for their subjects, who are generally in their 20s, smart, imaginative and powerless in their day-to-day lives. That's why they dress up in cloaks and helmets -- as one puts it: "Everything that was once noble and good in this world is gone, and it's been replaced with Wal-Mart."

There's a blessed absence of snark in the filmmaking; "Darkon" never mocks the players. In fact, the camera puts us in the thick of battles that look like a community college production of "The Return of the King" and make it look like huge fun -- there are even catapults. It's cleverly and ambitiously filmed (flyover shots of the gamers' gridlike housing developments make them look a lot like the cells on the Darkon map). No surprise that it took the Audience Documentary Prize at last year's South by Southwest Film Festival. Battle on!

TucsonWeekly.com - Darkon - We're All Elves

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We're All Elves

'Darkon' chronicles the thin line between RP and RL, with touching results

By JAMES DIGIOVANNA email this author
We're All Elves

Darkon. Directed by Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel. Starring Skip Lipman, Daniel McCarthur and Rebecca Thurmond. Rated Not Rated. Genre: Documentary.
"Whatever skills I have don't go well as far as being successful in this civilization," says Skip Lipman, a stay-at-home dad in a Maryland suburb. Growing up, his dream was to inherit his father's business and spend his life joyfully running it. However, the fates were not kind, as Skip's evil brother stole the business, sold it, and left Skip without meaning or purpose.

And so Skip decided to take revenge.

But not on his brother. Instead, two weekends a month, Skip dons shiny metal armor and a large wooden shield and joins his warrior brethren in battle upon the fields of Darkon, a kingdom of intrigue, magic and a strict call-your-own-hit combat system with a per-battle experience point bonus.

Darkon, the story of a massive live-action role-playing game (LARP) in the Baltimore/DC area, is pretty much the only film with a "fantasy/documentary" genre designation. It's also a touchingly human movie about the eclectic assortment of businessmen, nerds, strippers and partyers who enjoy dressing up as heroes or elves or busty, busty maidens.

And of those heroes, one stands out for his bravery and nobility, and for the fact that he has begun to find the world of Darkon to be, in some ways, more real than his life as an unarmored suburbanite. That man is Skip Lipman, or as his Darkonian allies call him, Bannor of Laconia.

Opposing Skip is the evil Keldar of Mordom, aka Kenyon Wells, a manager at an IT consulting firm (evil!) who, in the world of Darkon, is warlord of a wicked empire that seeks to enslave all the free kingdoms, taking their lands, honor and lunch money.

The film starts with a pronouncement of war by Skip in his Bannor of Laconia guise. Bannor has had enough of the evil he wrought when he was still in alliance with the Mordomians, and now seeks to right these wrongs by hitting people with foam weapons until they submit to his glorious might.

Cutting to nine months earlier, when Bannor's plot was first gestating, Darkon then proceeds to explore the lives of a half dozen of the most devout Darkon players.

There's Rebecca, a single mom and ex-stripper who lives in her parents' basement and feels like she has no control or satisfaction in her life. Well, in her "real" life; in Darkon she's Nemesis, leader of a band of adventurers who look to her for guidance and snacks.

And then there's Danny, a college kid who gives off the downy scent of virginity and speaks of himself in the third person. "I like Danny but sometimes Danny doesn't have the balls to do what Danny needs to," he says, recounting his inability to talk to women who aren't wearing bodices and speaking in mock old English. Thus he becomes Trivius the nomad, wandering the world of Darkon in search of respect and a pretend girlfriend, like maybe an elf or something.

The elves of Darkon actually seem to be the most dedicated, and to be having the most fun. They darken their faces, speak in elvish, and revel in betrayal and canned alcohol beverages. "I come here, pay $5, beat everything within sight, have a good time, sit down, drink a beer," says one unidentified elven man. Other than the blackface makeup and vaguely medieval outfit, he looks like the kind of guy you'd meet at a local sports bar, except that he could totally kick your ass with a halberd.

While the characters have fun, play make-believe, and occasionally seek some greater sense of esteem, Skip immerses himself in his plans as Bannor. In one of the weirdest and most affecting sequences, Skip and his friend James sit at a local diner discussing their in-game lives. James wants to switch sides and take up with Keldar, but Skip takes this as a real betrayal. "It's just a game!" says James, but Skip, unable to make the distinction, loses a friend.

The drama and passion of Darkon are surprisingly affecting, and the filmmakers, though understanding the oddness and even ridiculous nature of the game, never laugh at the players. Instead, they use the split between real life/game life to create a very compelling story about the ways in which people find meaning and define identity.

One thing the film makes clear is the line between acting and being is very thin. "Long before I was ready to negotiate a multi-million dollar contract, I was negotiating a treaty between our country and other countries," says Kenyon/Keldar, reclining in his office chair. It's not immediately apparent which of the two gives him a greater sense of accomplishment.

Directors Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel have done an expert job editing a strong, story-centered film out of the hours of footage they shot, producing a completely engrossing 84 minutes. The story of Bannor's fight against Keldar gives the movie its plot. But the heart of the film is in the lives of people like Skip and Danny and Rebecca. For them, Darkon is place that is as full of failure and difficulty as the real world, but it's a place where those failures and difficulties have a meaningful place in a larger story, and it's a place where, as each of them notes, they have some control over their own destiny.

TheStranger.com - Seattle Newspaper - Darkon

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Darkon

dir. Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer

They clash in the parks and wooded areas surrounding Baltimore. These men and women, mostly in their 30s, dress up in armor and various medieval garb. Some even speak invented languages. They are soldiers in the midst of an epic war between rival nations, scheming and negotiating, double-crossing and backstabbing, but ultimately, and routinely, meeting on the battlefields, where they hammer at each other with weapons made of cardboard and foam. It's Dungeons & Dragons come to frenzied, and completely serious, life; World of Warcraft let loose from the hard drive.

As documentary subjects go, the game of Darkon is ripe for mockery. The game is geekery taken to its new and—if not for the relative normality of its players—troubling heights. It runs the risk of becoming all consuming. But Darkon's directors, Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer, haven't set out to present their subjects as an army of delusional dorks. We learn that for many it is no more than an escape from daily doldrums, for others a chance to earn a popularity that eluded them in high school, and, yes, for some who immerse themselves in the game's invented mythology, it's a means of avoiding their lives. But when Neel and Meyer show us the players in battle—complete with soaring cameras and thundering score—their obsession, no matter how minor or major, is both charming and, in a sense, understandable. After all, who hasn't dreamed of being a hero at some point in his life? And, for that matter, who wouldn't enjoy bashing his friends and enemies with cardboard swords every once in a while? BRADLEY STEINBACHER

AustinChronicle.com - Cover Story- Strategy and Strategery

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Strategy and Strategery
Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel on 'Darkon' and the real-world implications of role players at war
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

When Ian McKellen pretends to be a wizard, he gets $8 million and an Oscar nomination. When a bunch of ordinary working people get together to pretend to be barbarians, warriors, and trolls on the weekend for fun, they get called geeks. Call them instead LARPers – live action role-players – and the subject of Darkon, an overwhelming favorite on the 2006 festival circuit.

In their debut documentary feature, co-directors Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer enter Darkon, a high-fantasy world in which orcs rampage across nations, mages cast arcane conjurings, and dark elves plot in caves. In reality, Darkon is a set of gaming rules, a map of fictional countries, and a series of weekendlong live-action events on borrowed farmland. Players come in homemade costumes, and vie for power and hexes on the map through negotiations, treachery, and intrigue. When that fails, they battle with padded maces and foam swords.

This isn't teens rolling dice in a basement: With 1,000 members, or Darkonians, it's one of the nation's largest LARPing groups. Players are drawn from diverse swaths of society, from high schoolers to happily married managers with no shame about their hobby. Contrary to the stereotype, it's not just a boy's club, as plenty of women, and even whole families, join the fray. With a couple hundred gamers at any live event, Darkon is as much a real-world society as a game. Players keep the same character for years and develop strong friendships. Live-action events may be built around the game, but when the armor comes off, and the characters are dropped, it's also a huge campout, a chance to hang, eat, and catch up. There's an almost unspoken irony that role-players, once the teenage nerds who stereotypically avoided sports, are camping out in the Baltimore winter. Meanwhile, their jock contemporaries have been promoted to solitary armchair quarterbacking.

At SXSW Film 06, against a highly competitive slate of political movies, Neel and Meyer walked away with the documentary feature audience award. Their guide to Darkon was Skip Lipman, in many ways the film's true star. During the week, he's a devoted stay-at-home husband and dad from Baltimore. On the weekend, he's Bannor, warlord of Laconia. Another player/character (Keldar, in-game persona of middle-manager Kenyon Wells) is conquering the lands of Darkon in the name of the Mordom Empire. The mood turns ugly and personal as Wells' "playing" eradicates fictitious nations and created characters. Is he playing the game to its natural conclusion, or is he like the guy who turns a friendly game of poker into a way to take money off his friends? Lipman has to work out whether to call foul on Wells in the real world, or use Bannor's armies to vanquish Keldar on the field of battle.

Actually, it's a mistake to presume that Darkon isn't a political movie. There's the in-game war between Keldar and Bannor, reflected in personal animosity between Wells and Lipman. There's also a hierarchy in the LARPing world. Darkonians, with their emphasis on politics and world-building, look down on those who just bash one another with foam weapons (dismissively called "stick jocks"). Not that there isn't a fair amount of flailing around with plywood shields in Darkon, and while that's shown to be damn good fun, it's the result of a failure of nations. And that's where the real politics comes in. As Keldar starts to rip Darkon and the gamers apart, the players increasingly reflect on war-gaming during a time of real war.

Darkon on AOL.com - Top 5 Stories of the day

The critically acclaimed documentary Darkon, 2006 winner of the SXSW Film Festival Audience Award, premieres today on AOL's documentary site True Stories (http://truestories.aol.com) prior to its theatrical release later this month. During January, Darkon will be available online to stream free, as well as pay-per-download. After the free preview month, the film will be available for transactional download only.

HollywoodReporter: IFC documentaries visit "Darkon"

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IFC pumps original slate with docus

By Kimberly Nordyke
Dec 20, 2006

IFC is expanding its original nonfiction programming slate with a trio of documentaries on topics ranging from fantasy role-playing gamers to a punk band to the execution of an innocent man.

In addition, Janeane Garofalo has signed on to offer editorials in four episodes of the network's "The Henry Rollins Show," which will have its second-season premiere April 13. A one-hour special, "Henry Rollins: Uncut From Tel Aviv," documenting Rollins' two-night performance in the Israeli city, will kick off the new season.

Meanwhile, the three feature-length docus are:

 "Darkon," premiering in fall 2007, follows the real-life adventures of an unusual group of weekend "warrior knights," fantasy role-playing gamers whose live-action "battleground" is modern-day Baltimore reimagined as a make-believe medieval world called Darkon. "Darkon," winner of the South by Southwest Film Festival Audience Award, is directed by Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer of SeeThink Prods and produced by Ovie Entertainment.

 "Heavy Load," airing in spring 2008, centers on the punk band of the same name comprising musicians with and without learning disabilities. The docu is directed and produced by Jerry Rothwell and produced by Al Morrow and Jonny Persey of APT Films.

 "At the Death House Door," also debuting in spring 2008, centers on the wrongful execution of Carlos DeLuna and the Death House Chaplain, Pastor Carroll Pickett, who spent the last day of DeLuna's life with him. Pickett believed DeLuna was innocent, and the film will track the investigative efforts of a team of Chicago Tribune reporters who have turned up evidence that strongly suggests he was. The docu, in production, is directed and produced by Steve James and Peter Gilbert and executive produced by Gordon Quinn. It's a Kartemquin Films production in association with the Chicago Tribune.

IFC executive vp and general manager Evan Shapiro said the docus fit perfectly with IFC's brand, which this year became more focused on making original programming "front and center."

"In 2007, original programming will become the heart and soul of the IFC brand, and these three documentaries represent an important step in the evolution of the brand," he said. "These docus speak to where we're taking nonfiction -- giving a voice to the voiceless and a platform to those who don't necessarily get heard. They're irreverent and unique."

Other documentaries making their way to IFC next year include "The Bridge," "Indie Sex," "Does Your Soul Have a Cold?" and IFC's first theatrical release, "This Film Is Not Yet Rated," debuting on the network March 31. Shapiro added that IFC will be making an announcement about its fiction programming slate in the new year.

Meanwhile, Shapiro noted that Garofalo, a friend of Rollins, will offer a "completely new point of view" in her editorials on Rollins' late-night talk show. The editorials -- about topics ranging from the state of the union to pop culture to whatever's on her mind -- will be shot on location at her New York apartment. "Rollins" is from Swift River Prods., which is producing the special with Richard Bishop.

RecordOnline.com - Best of the Woodstock Film Fest: TOP 10 FILMS

Best of the Woodstock Film Fest: TOP 10 FILMS
Our favorite flicks of the fest
By Germain Lussier
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#9 "Darkon" — directed by Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer
In need of an escape from their everyday lives as office managers and Starbucks employees, the people of Baltimore go to Darkon, a fictional land where each can be his or her own hero. This live-action role-playing documentary is a bit confusing and repetitive but majestic in a way most documentaries only dream of.

DARKON - THE FADER - FILM ISSUE - ISSUE 41 - OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2006

THE FADER - FILM ISSUE - ISSUE 41 - OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2006
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Darkon is part of a growing microgenre in film: the dorkumentary. Joining the ranks of Trekkies and Wordplay, Darkon focuses on Live Action Role-Playing, a human-to-human version of Dungeons & Dragons. Named after the fictional country where the participants of one LARPing society create their mythology (actually a forest outside of Baltimore), directors Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel capture battles with bravado and home lives with a quiet sensitivity.
The point of other documentaries is that the socially awkward create these communities to be who they can't be in real life, but in Darkon the players tow their personalities across the line dividing real and fantasy worlds. "Most people assume that role-playing is an activity that people take up as a result of not being able to deal with the world," says MEYER.
"What is often overlooked is that they do what they want to without caring what judgments other people put on them. It's indifference to what is considered normal." - Eric Ducker

VARIETY: DARKON REVIEW

Darkon

(Documentary)

An Ovie Entertainment presentation of a SeeThink, Ovie Entertainment production. Produced by Ethan Palmer, Tom Davis, Christopher Kikis, Thoma Kikis, Nicholas Levis, Cherise Wolas, Alan Zelenetz.
Directed by Andrew Neel, Luke Meyer.

By EDDIE COCKRELL
The same Maryland woods that yielded "The Blair Witch Project" now bring forth "Darkon," a clear-eyed and oddly touching docu about a gaggle of Baltimoreans who dress up in home-made medieval garb and chase each other around soccer fields and meadows...

Though never mentioned by name, "Darkon" falls under a phenom called LARP, or "live-action role-playing." It's a tradition known to outsiders primarily through Dungeons and Dragons, the inspiration for a number of Darkon players.

From among the many average types who blow off steam in this fantasy world, two leaders emerge. Skip Lipman is a stay-at-home dad whose supremely tolerant wife and children don't seem to mind that he moonlights as proud warrior Bannor of Laconia. As the pic progresses, Skip ... err, Bannor, schemes to defeat the forces of Keldar of Mordom (real world office drone Kenyon Wells, whose parents explain that in his youth their son "wasn't a people person").

Keldar's awfully good at rallying the troops, however, and the balance of "Darkon" features Bannor's increasingly disillusioned rabble-rousing -- inspired, per co-helmer Andrew Neel, by the filmmakers' presence -- against Keldar's land-grabbing ways to explore the interface between the dreary workaday world and the appeal of the game.

Subjects were apparently fearful the pic would cast them in an unflattering light, but that hasn't happened. Helmers' approach is respectful -- a shrewd decision that coaxes both humanity and humor from the proceedings.

Climactic confrontation takes place in and around the highly anticipated Citadel of Peace, which turns out to be a gray-painted plywood facade that the victors end up burning to the ground. It's never explained if they need permits for any of this.

Ultimately, their dedication, while unfathomable to most, is admirable. And Darkon clearly fulfills a need in the their lives. "Little world," Bannor tells one foe. "Just as real as big world."

Made over three years and distilled from 300-plus hours of footage shot in large part with a camera bought by Neel's mother, "Darkon" was by accounts a seat-of-the-pants operation that emerges a lucid and streamlined saga by virtue of good coverage and disciplined editing. Shrewd use of aerial footage and an overworked crane add to the pic's proudly threadbare sweep. Violinist Jonah Rapino, who also scores silent classics, has created an evocative score on par with any Hollywood fantasy.

Review - Darkon: LA Film Fest

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By Emanuel Levy

"Darkon," winner of this year's Austin's SXSW Film Festival Audience Award, opened to a large, eager crowd at the Los Angeles Film Festival, most under the age of 30. An ode to nonconformity, it's easy to see why the documentary would be a favorite among young urbanites. Yet for all its hipster appeal, it's hard to imagine anyone who would not be charmed by this humanistic, thoughtful and highly entertaining film.

Daniel is a pudgy Starbucks employee who has trouble talking to girls. Skip is a stay-at-home dad who enjoys making cardboard shields and dressing up in elaborate Halloween costumes. Kenyon, as his parents explain, wasn't a "real people person" growing up.

Most would call these people nerds. But in the Realm of Darkon, they discard their self-effacing demeanor and poor social skills for chain mail and powerful leadership positions. On the battlefield, Daniel, Skip and Kenyon become Trivius, Bannor and Keldar.

These "weekend warriors" meet in Baltimore-area soccer fields and public parks to engage in LARK, or live-action role-playing. Wielding foam sticks and PVC pipes, participants battle for power and territory. The land, as one warrior explains, is essentially invisible, but it certainly helps to bolster one's ego.

Filmmakers Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer, who spent three years researching various types of role-playing games, are not oblivious to the humor that comes from seeing grown men and women don homemade armor, exchange battle tactics and refer to themselves as their alter egos. The mock-seriousness of the epic, "The Lord of the Rings"-style battle scenes juxtaposed with such everyday footage as Skip petting his cat while he discusses his plan to defeat Keldar keeps the laughs coming. However, "Darkon" is never condescending; Neel and Meyer understand their subjects and treat them with affection.

To the casual observer, these characters may seem a bit freakish. A psychologist would call their behavior unhealthy, escapism taken to the extreme. Even the media, an escapist medium, is grounded in a realist mentality. Dr. Phil, Oprah and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" tell us to get a clue, get a life and get a decent wardrobe.

"Darkon," alternatively, shows that escapism is not only comforting, but also empowering. In a society where they are ignored and ridiculed, alter egos allow these characters to assume agency and form an identity for themselves separate from the ones they have been trapped in since birth. One woman says she has a menial job where it wouldn't really matter if she came in each day, but battles give her a sense of purpose.

We also have to ask ourselves, why are some forms of escapism more acceptable than others? Why is it OK to turn to our I-Pods and issues of US Weekly whenever life gets us down, but not to engage in medieval role-playing, which, as silly as it looks, at least encourages social interaction?
By the end of the film, we may not find ourselves teaming up with elves to fight the forces of evil, but at least we can understand why some people just might be inclined to do so.

DARKON - So many movies, so little time - There ain’t no flops at SILVERDOCS

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So many movies, so little time - There ain’t no flops at SILVERDOCS

Then there’s online gamer Andrew Neel, who went nuts when he heard about a Baltimore group whose members transform themselves from mundane stay-at-home dads and Starbucks Coffee barristers to live action heroes. Seems every other weekend, some 200 to 300 costumed play-actors take over a park or farmland and spend the day fighting, conquering and nation building. High-tailing it down to Maryland to meet the potential film stars, a couple of years and hundreds of videotape hours later, Neel and his partner Luke Meyer have made the feature-length film ‘‘Darkon.”

Washington City Paper - DARKON - SILVERDOCS - Splice of Life

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SILVERDOCS - Splice of Life
Go see the one about the over-the-hill roller-derby players. Skip the one about the giant anarchist bicycles. And, depending on how much reality you can take, you might want to take a chance on the one about the woman with breast cancer.

...Some of this year’s better documentaries, however, are serious considerations of not-so-serious topics, from the live-action role-playing of Darkon to the roller-derbying of Jam to the eccentric extension of a career on the ball field in Spaceman: A Baseball Odyssey.

Darkon
Anyone who’s seen the much-e-mailed clip of the “Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!” kid might think he understands live-action role-playing (or “LARPing”): a beyond-geeky mashup of Dungeons & Dragons and Civil War re-enactments. Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer’s film sets out to disprove that perception—especially the “beyond-geeky” part. Their subjects are real people with jobs, families, and, yes, lives outside the game. The co-directors spent nearly three years following a group of Baltimore-area LARPers who meet every other weekend at parks and campsites to further the exploits of their alter egos through a combination of acting, political strategy, and full-contact battles with foam-padded weaponry. Each of the participants has his own reasons for spending so much time with the Darkon Wargaming Club: Andrew (aka Shapwin of Laconia) laments the suckiness of our modern age, saying, “Everything that was once noble and good in this world is gone and is replaced with Wal-Mart.” Danny (aka Trivius the Nomad) gains the self-confidence he lacks in reality: “I can act like I’m not Danny. I like Danny, but sometimes Danny doesn’t have the balls to do what Danny needs to do.” The filmmakers made a surprising technical choice for a doc, depicting the gamers’ real-world lives with traditional one-on-one interviews while using Steadicams and crane shots to lend a slickly cinematic quality to their in-character interactions. It’s an effective device to represent immersion in a fictional world, but the film’s biggest success is showing how that world isn’t as unreal as it seems: Andrew and Danny’s passion, Darkon suggests, is just an amped-up version of the role-playing we all do in our daily lives.—Jason Powell

At 2:15 p.m. Saturday, June 17.

HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com - DARKON: LAFF stylin' with 'Prada' opener

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LAFF stylin' with 'Prada' opener
Sundance fave 'Quinceanera' gets Centerpiece slot

By Gregg Kilday

David Frankel's "The Devil Wears Prada" will kick off Film Independent's 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 22 as the festival's opening-night film, screening at the Mann Village Theatre in Westwood. Fox Searchlight is releasing the film, which stars Meryl Streep as the editor of a woman's fashion magazine, on June 30.

The documentary competition, which also carries a $50,000 grant from Target, will encompass 11 films: "Beyond Conviction," directed by Rachel Libert; "The Creek Runs Red," directed by Bradley Beesley, Julianna Brannum and James Payne; "Darkon," by Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer; "Deliver Us From Evil," by Amy Berg; "East of Havana," by Jauretsi Saizarbitoria and Emilia Menocal; "Inheritance," by James Moll; "Kabul Transit," by David Edwards and Gregory Whitmore; "Mario's Story," by Jeff Werner and Susan Koch; "Matthew Barney: No Restraint," by Alison Chernick; "Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater," by Julie Anderson; and "A Place to Dance," by Alan Berg.

INDIEWIRE.com - DARKON: "The Devil Wears Prada" to Kick Off 2006 Los Angeles Film Fest; Complete Competition Lineups Also Announced

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by Eugene Hernandez (May 31, 2006)

The 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival, running June 22 - July 2, 2006, will open with David Frankel's "The Devil Wears Prada" and close with Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris's Little Miss Sunshine. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland's Quinceanera will screen as a centerpiece premiere at the festival. "We are thrilled to be bringing another wonderful slate of films from around the U.S. and abroad to Los Angeles audiences," said Rachel Rosen, Director of Programming for Film Independent and the Los Angeles Film Festival, in a statement. "This year, the Festival has something for everyone from charming comedies to heartrending documentaries. Audiences will also have the chance to discuss the films they've seen with some of our visiting filmmakers and guests."
"The Devil Wears Prada" stars Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Adrian Grenier, and Tracie Thoms in an adaptation of the best-selling novel by Lauren Weisberger. The film is described as the story of "an aspiring writer (who) has just started a new job as assistant to the most powerful woman in fashion and all-around boss from hell...Editor-in-Chief of Runway magazine."
The lineup for the 2006 Los Angeles Film Festival follows (information provided by Film Independent):
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Darkon
Members of a live action role-playing game bring us into their fantasy lives in the make-believe medieval world of Darkon.
DIRECTORS Andrew Neel, Luke Meyer PRODUCERS Tom Davis, Ethan Palmer, Christopher Kikis, Thoma Kikis, Nicholas Levis, Cherise Wolas, Alan Zelenetz FEATURING Skip Lipman, Kenyon Wells, Daniel Mcarthur, Rebecca Thurmond, James Iddings, James Shirk, Domenic Prince, Andrew Mattingly, Gary Black, Frank Kanach, Leah Kanach

THEFILMLOT.com - DARKON INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTORS ANDREW NEEL & LUKE MEYER

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Q: This film definitely needs to break out of the festival circuit!

AN: I think it will. You know the film has a learning curve because…

LM: It’s such a weird form…

AN: Yeah… When we were making the film we really didn’t have a roadmap. We didn’t have anything to compare it too. When we sat down with all the material, we didn’t have any movie that we could reference. Sometimes we’re referencing Grey Gardens and sometimes we’re referencing Conan the Barbarian! I mean that’s like very strange to be referencing those two things together. I think that the fact those two elements are alive in one movie, probably takes a little bit of wrapping your head around. But once people wrap their head around it and see how much people are enjoying it, I think that it will get the distribution it deserves.

But again it’s the courting process that we’re going through right now and there has been a tremendous amount of interest from some really big deal types. So that's exciting!

ION MAGAZINE - DARKON

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BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE NERDS
DARKON

Words Michael Mann

"NerrrRRRDDSS!"
-Ogre in Revenge of the Nerds

In most cases you wouldn't have to specify that the quote comes from
Revenge of the Nerds but when talking about the Darkon, a quote from
"ogre" could mean any number of things. Directed by Luke Meyer and Andrew
Neel, Darkon is a new documentary currently doing the festival circuit
that brings the viewer into a world of live action role-playing, or
LARPing. What is LARPing? Neel explain: "I guess simply, people who create
a character. Get dressed up in some sort of costume then go out and play a
game. Usually physical, though there are a lot that are more mental."
Meyer adds, "It's like Dungeons & Dragons, but instead of making decisions
by rolling a dice it's played out by people physically with foam weapons.
Either settling wars, like two-sided disputes, or through adventures."
The idea came to Neel while in film school and he was working on a short
about online worlds. After completing that, he developed the idea into a
feature length intended to be on Dungeons & Dragons. Through his research
he discovered LARPing and Darkon, a group of LARPers in the DC area. After
some coaxing, he got members of this community to agree to be in a
documentary, which follows the lives of these people in and out of the
game. Aside from interviews and talking heads, Darkon features cinematic
battle sequences, complete with crane shots and embedded cameramen. Hardly
typical documentary conventions, but this is hardly a typical documentary
subject. Like Murderball that introduced us to wheelchair rugby, or
Spellbound, which brought us into the world of elementary school spelling
bees, documentary film makers are showing us that, sociologically
speaking, there's still a lot of undiscovered land out there that needs to
be mapped outŠ even if this land is in the Middle Earth.
Beyond the obvious what makes LARPing an engaging subject for a
documentary ­the spectacle, the bizarreness, the hyper-nerdery­ Neel
thinks it brings a lot more to the table. "It's interesting ethnographic
subject matter in terms of watching human behavior. Americans, and the
world, are very interested in virtual worlds right now. Our existence as
human beings is becoming increasingly psychological. This game manifests a
lot of
interesting topics that have a lot to do with that. It very clearly
represents the way that human beings try to bridge the gap between fantasy
and reality in the world of the mind and the world that's in front of us."
Immediately coming to mind when a lot of people first hear about Darkon is
a video that was circulating the Internet a few years back. In it, a
portly fellow screams "Lightening Bolt! Lightening Bolt!" while throwing
foam bolts of lightening at fellow nerds in armor. I was told that LARPers
hate that video and that "One of the cool things about Darkon is you get
some of the football jocks from high school and some people who are really
interested in what can be a rigorous physical exercise." Whether or not
putting on a suit of armor and fighting overlords with crossbows will
replace Bikram's Yoga remains to be seen.
Like many, I've had a roll of the 50-sided die to determine whether or not
a treasure chest contains a runed wand of the abyss or an angry mage who's
going to cast a magic missile spell on me. But I was in a young, stupid
and experimental stage of youth. The people in this movie are full-grown
adults with day jobs. Skirting around the issue I politely ask: "Who are
these people that are into live action role playing?" hoping that they'll
confirm my suspicions that it's only nerds doing this thus allowing me to
sleep better at night. Meyer claims that "one of the most surprising
things to me was how wide the spectrum was. It goes from high school kids
to lawyer parents to whatever."
Okay, but is it just nerds? I get an emphatic "No" from Neel. But after a
short pause he concedes, "There's no question that a good percentage of
the people that are in the game did play Dungeons & Dragons. I guess dorks
are the way of the world right now. We're all IT managers and computer
people. That's sort of connected to the idea that our world is becoming
psychological. In our everyday lives our effect on the world is not always
very tangible. If you're working as a stockbroker or whatever you're doing
you don't really get to see things move in front of you when you do
something. This game allows you to do that. Maybe that's dorks. I guess it
is and Luke [Meyer] and I would have to consider ourselves part of that
category."
True dork and nerd are no longer dirty words. That there are six million
people (500,000 people online at any given time) all pretending to be
minotaur shaman or night elf rogues in The World of Warcraft shows that
role-playing is hardly the closeted behavior of nerds that it used to be.
So fly your nerd flag high, without shame, because you are not alone. May
all your treasure chests contain enchanted chainmail armor.

Baltimore City Paper: Sword Play - Ready Or Not, the Live-Action Role-Players Of Darkon Get Their Closeup

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Sword Play
Ready Or Not, the Live-Action Role-Players Of Darkon Get Their Closeup

By Cole Haddon

Two armies face each other beneath a blistering midday sun, the glean from their regal armor almost blinding. Fists drum against emblazoned shields. Generals stir in each line of warriors an almost religious fervor to die gloriously for their great countries. Humans and elves raise their weapons—swords, battle axes, maces—and roar so that even the gods can hear them.¸

“Charge!” howls one of the generals. His noble enemy across the field of battle orders the same. Slowly, overwhelmed perhaps by the prospect of death, warriors charge forward and collide with each other in a flurry of carnage that may be retold for centuries in song and myth. Watching from the sidelines, some 60 or so family and friends shout their support. Their mini-vans wait to whisk them away.

Afterward, the wounded are tended to, holy clerics say prayers over the dead, and corpses are dragged from the field. “There’s definitely a feast at a local watering hole where the myth begins,” says Skip Lipman, one of those warriors. “The reality of the day is over, and then the storytelling starts. And if it’s Sunday afternoon during football season, we’re trying to find the game. It’s definitely just guys out having our fun.”

On any given weekend in the Baltimore-Washington area, epic battles that play out very much like this are taking place in local parks and campgrounds. The men and women of the Darkon Wargaming Club Inc., dress in medieval-style costumes and armor and pound on each other with foam-padded weaponry. They give themselves names specific to their game realm, Darkon. And it has evolved into a complex game/sport of character role-playing and physically challenging battles with a membership of more than 1,000 strong with some 300 active participants. For the layman, they make The Lord of the Rings a simulated reality. And they’ve been doing it since 1985.

In the fall of 2003, filmmakers Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer began regularly making the long drive from their New York homes to Baltimore in order to transform the Darkonians’ stories into Darkon, from which the above scene comes. The documentary premiered at the 2006 South by Southwest Film Festival, where it won the Audience Documentary Award along with some of the fest’s loudest buzz. Getting Darkon’s members to agree to the movie wasn’t the easiest task...

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VIDEO: CBS 13 WJZ Baltimore - Morning Show "People Are TALKING" Maryland Film Festival

Darkon on the CBS 13 WJZ Baltimore Morning Show "People Are TALKING" Maryland Film Festival...

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PAGESIX - NYPOST.COM - SIGHTINGS - DARKON

May 3, 2006 -- . . . NATALIE Portman with Gael Garcia Bernal at the premiere of "Darkon" in Toronto.
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HOTDOCS DAILY - LINES AT DARKON PREMIERE in TORONTO

Crowds lined up outside the Bloor Cinema for the international premiere of Darkon.

THENEWSPAPER - DARKON - REVIEW - GRADE: A

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May 2, 2006
Review: Darkon

It may seem like an odd pastime for non-initiates, but the live-action role playing (LARP) game Darkon is not only pervasive, but remarkably fascinating. Set in Baltimore, Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel take us through the world of elves and kings and gold pieces, all being acted out by everyday adults dressed up in homemade costumes and wielding weapons that were painstakingly hand-crafted. Darkon introduces us to the legions of warriors that assemble every weekend to battle and scheme for maximum domination over their lands, but also lets us delve into the psyche of the LARPer and understand their motivations.

Skip Lipman, or perhaps Bannor of Laconia, is the star of Darkon, and it is immediately clear why: both he and his alter-ego are infectiously engaging. Using this charismatic central character to power the plot of the documentary, Meyer and Neel explore not only the game of Darkon and LARPing in general, but also probe into the general human propensity to act on fantasy. After all, in the world of Darkon, you can be whoever you want to be. The film is comedic and insightful, and never lags. In fact, Darkon functions just as well as a sports-ish movie than it does as an exploration of a bizarre game: you’re dying to know who wins.

The LARPers in the audience received many more questions than the filmmakers during the Q&A, which is a testament to the power Darkon has in humanizing the players and making them sympathetic to the audience. Despite being a quirky and bizarre game that may not be for everyone, there is hardly anyone out there that will not enjoy this movie.

ATX MAGAZINE: DARKON

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By Greg MacLennan

What is a game? Is it when one successfully enters a realm of fantasy and escapes their reality? What happens when the lines blur, and one can no longer delineate between fantasy and reality? Darkon, co-directed by Luke Myer and Andrew Neel, examines the bizarre yet fascinating game of Darkon, a live-action role-playing (LARP) game that's been played by natives of the Baltimore/Washington area since 1985. But for some, Darkon is much more than just a game.

The rules of Darkon are complex and somewhat difficult to understand, but manage not to distract from the film. Who wouldn't pay to see modern day people wearing authentic suits of armor and bashing each other with foam covered swords and shields?

The cast of characters seems a bit odd, but upon listening to them, you might second guess yourself and start your own LARP game. The individuals are handled with civility and are genuinely articulate and entertaining. They discuss their characters, as well as their everyday lives, and at some point the two seem to become one.

Apart from being a fun getaway, Darkon offers each player the ability to lead an army of people, forge relationships one might not otherwise make, and fulfill any fantasies. When the game stops, the players notice changes within themselves. One teenager in particular found himself losing weight and gaining confidence to talk to girls. On the other hand, two friends actually fought because one had ditched his "home country" in the game.

Darkon isn't something the participants are playing in order to seem odd or quirky. They are genuinely connected to the game, much like people are connected to movies that make them feel better or music that affects them emotionally.

Darkon isn't all about feelings and geekdom though. This film is action packed. The directors do such a fine job covering battles with people wielding foam swords, that the viewer actually feels as though they are watching a battle straight out of Lord of the Rings. The battles come complete with troop-addressed pep talks and swooping crane shots coupled with music befitting an epic struggle. Clearly, much effort was put into capturing the spectacle of battle these people experience.

In making a documentary of this nature it takes little effort to ridicule and expose the participants for others to ogle and laugh at. Admittedly even I found myself making jokes after receiving a button promoting the film which read, ÔWanna LARP?' What type of geekery had I stumbled upon? But upon viewing the film, I was floored by how seriously Neel and Myer take their subjects. Judging from the way they portray the participants, it seems as though they get caught up in the emotion and sense of adventure Darkon offers its players as well.

EYE WEEKLY: HOT DOCS - DARKON LEADS CHARGE

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Eye - April 27, 2006
HHHHHOT DOCSSSSS

All hail Darkonia: make-believe world becomes a real-life subject in sword ’n’ sneaker documentary

BY JASON ANDERSON

DARKON (**** - FOUR STARS)

Screening as part of Hot Docs. Dir. Andrew Neel, Luke Meyer. 89 min. April 28, 10:15pm, Bloor; April 30, 9pm, Innis Town Hall. For info on a live LARP demo April 28, go to www.darkonthemovie.com.

Imagine what the battle scenes in Braveheart might look like if they took place on a high-school football field somewhere in Maryland. Now imagine that the combatants are burly suburbanites in homemade medieval finery who smack each other silly with foam weapons and shout things like "We achieve victory in the name of the Crimson Gryphon!" Now imagine that it's awesome.

Welcome to the captivating world of Darkon, a live-action role playing game (LARP for short) that adds new meaning to the phrase "weekend warriors." Using carefully cultivated alter egos, players vie for territory and prestige in an elaborate game universe. The recent winner of the audience prize for best documentary at South by Southwest, Darkon is also the title of one of the highlights at Hot Docs, Toronto's annual non-fiction film fest, which begins Friday (April 28). Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer have created an entertaining and surprisingly thoughtful combination of ethnographic study and epic adventure tale. In Neel's words, "We create a cinematic unreality for the sake of trying to express some inner reality that people experience when they're playing Darkon."

Delving into the lives of the players on and off the field of battle, Neel and Meyer treat their subjects as much more than misfits in funny outfits. "That was one of the chief concerns of everyone profiled in the film," says Skip Lipman, the player who was the filmmakers' liaison into the game world and who fights on screen as Bannor of Laconia. (He'll also be in town for a LARP demo to coincide with Darkon's Canadian premiere.) "We didn't want them to make a mockumentary or a Trekkies but to try to portray us as the real people we are."

Neel learned about the Darkon chapter in the Baltimore/Washington area while he was researching a screenplay about Dungeons & Dragons, the role-playing game that eventually spawned a rich and varied subculture of which Darkon is only a small part. Since the rolling of a 10-sided die can't compare with a Nerf-enhanced battle in terms of visual appeal or dramatic impact, Darkon was a natural subject even if the players themselves were wary of outsiders. "It was a long journey convincing them to do it and getting everyone's support," says Neel, who spent three years on the project with Meyer.

Though some players were reticent about being featured on camera lest it cause them problems at work or at home, others were excited to participate and reflect on the relationships between their game selves and their "real" ones. Even so, the game itself was of primary importance. Says Lipman, "All those people showed up to play Darkon, not to be in the movie -- the movie was peripheral."

Their hobby may initially inspire giggles but the filmmakers pull us so deep into the game, we are ultimately able to see the world in the context of Darkon, not the other way around. Neel likens the film to a Shakespearean comedy in that it constantly reminds us that "life is a performance and we're all performing." Adds the director, "That's part of what Darkonians realize about the world through the game: that we're all on this ridiculous stage playing out these roles and these scenarios. One of our subjects said something like, 'This world is just someone else's bad fantasy.' There's some truth to that. We all live in a construction that originated in the mind and was brought into reality."

Neel calls Darkon "a profound activity" and, believe it or not, the movie bears out this idea. It may even inspire you to make your own foam mace and start calling yourself Gorgamak the Magnificent. Is that really so strange?"

VIDEO: IFC NEWS - BEHIND THE BADGE

DARKON ON IFC NEWS: BEHIND THE BADGE
For ten days in March, South By Southwest Takes over Austin, TX. Its a festival like none other, bringing together the very best in music, film and the interactive world - and don't even get us started on the parties.
To get a real insider's perspective, hangovers and all, at this sprawling media event, IFC handed mini dv cameras to three very different attendees and asked them to film their personal and private experience at the fstival. Here's our look at SXSW 2006: Behind the Badge.

VARIETY: Brit feature docufest set for July bow

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Brit feature docufest set for July bow
Spurlock and Broomfield to teach master classes

By ARCHIE THOMAS

LONDON -- Documeisters Morgan Spurlock and Nick Broomfield will teach master classes at Britdoc 2006, the U.K.'s first film fest dedicated to feature-length documentaries, when it launches this summer at Oxford U.'s Keble College.
Britdoc, presented July 26-28 by the Channel 4 British Documentary Film Foundation, aims to bring filmmakers together to facilitate international co-productions, generate ideas and share knowledge with the overall aim of stimulating the feature docu market in the U.K.

The two competition strands will feature British and international docs, respectively.

Already lined up for the competish are Rex Bloomstein's "KZ" and Nick and Marc Francis' "Black Gold" in the Brit section and Doug Block's "51 Birch Street" and "Darkon," from Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel, in the international strand.

Event will include master classes and a pitching forum organized in collaboration with the Intl. Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

Fest is currently accepting shorts submissions.