AINTITCOOLNEWS.COM: 21 Film SXSW RoundUp!!

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Ghost Boy sent in this round-up from SXSW 2006, where he bravely (and perhaps foolheartedly) set out to review 28 (or was it 29?) films.
As you've probably guessed, it didn't exactly work out that way. Regardless, we fully respect the ambition of his undertaking - and are floored that he still managed a whopping 21 capsule reviews of the films that most impressed him during the festival!
It should be noted that I spent a considerable amount of this afternoon trying to string these 21 titles into the indisputably ultimate, unconquerably low-brow, uber-pathetic AICN headline. My effort was mighty...how glorious it could have been! But I failed, and now I feel shame.
Here's Ghost Boy. Enjoy!

Darkon (dir. Luke Meyer & Andrew Neel
Winner of this year's prize for Best Documentary, and one of the few sure bets for theatrical distribution, Darkon is named for a fictive realm in which armies of businessmen and stay-at-home-dads battle each other for dominion in full medieval regalia, armed with padded weapons. The filmmakers could easily have poked fun at these literal weekend warriors and their straight-faced dedication to what is essentially a full scale game of Dungeons & Dragons, but that would have been too easy. Instead, directors Meyer and Neel take a more honorable route and treat their subjects with a respect they do in fact deserve.

VARIETY: DARKON AT HOTDOCS

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'Railroad' to kick off Hot Docs fest
Slate features 99 films from 23 countries

By TAMSEN TILLSON

The North American preem of Chema Rodriguez's "The Railroad All Stars," a doc about Guatemalan prostitutes who join a soccer team to highlight their plight, will open the 13th Hot Docs Canadian Intl. Documentary Festival on April 28.
It heads up a slate of 99 films from 23 countries unveiled Tuesday in Toronto for the nine-day event, North America's largest doc fest and market, with about 1,700 industryites in attendance as well as 41,000 filmgoers.

Events and politics from the Mideast inspire a number of this year's festival picks. In "Voices of Bam," directed by Aliona van der Horst and Maasja Ooms, survivors tell of the earthquake in Bam, Iran. Fresh from Sundance, James Longley brings "Iraq in Fragments." The North American preem of "Our Own Private Bin Laden," from Samira Goetschel, takes viewers on a trip "down the rabbit hole of Cold War politics."

The Canadian Spectrum features 15 world preems, including Jean-Daniel Lafond's "American Fugitive: The Truth About Hassan." Doc's about David Theodore Belfield, an African-American exiled in Iran for 25 years and on the FBI's most-wanted list for the 1980 killing of an Iranian diplomat.

The Canadian spectrum this year is headed by Larry Weinstein's "Mozartballs," a tribute inspired by the composer's 250th birthday. As part of an expanded special presentations program, festgoers go on vacation with Rosie O'Donnell and Atom Egoyan in Sharl Cookson's "All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise" and Egoyan's "Citadel."

Nick Broomfield's "His Big White Self" joins the slate, as does "Fuck" from Steve Anderson, an examination of that expletive. "Darkon" from Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer, the audience's pick for top doc at the SXSW Film Festival, joins the international showcase.

Other Sundance hits receiving their Canadian preem are "In the Pit" from Juan Carlos Rulfo; Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan's "So Much so Fast"; "Thin," directed by Lauren Greenfield, and "Wide Awake" from Alan Berliner.

The fest's signature industry event, the Toronto Documentary Forum, runs May 3 and 4.

FILMJUNK.COM - LARP Documentary “Darkon”

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LARP Documentary “Darkon” Takes Audience Award at SXSW

Live-Action Roleplaying (or LARP) is a form of a game where the participants dress up in costumes and act out characters in a story, usually set in medieval times. Truth be told, I’ve been intrigued by this strange subculture ever since I saw the classic Lightning Bolt! video circulated on the net. I mean, what the heck are the rules of this game, and more importantly, don’t these people have any dignity? I’m pretty sure I’ve heard about a couple documentaries in the works on the subject, and now one in particular has come to the forefront by winning an Audience Award for Best Documentary at the SXSW festival this month. Darkon tells the story of the Darkon Wargaming Club in Washington, D.C. Although my first thought on a documentary like this is that it would simply make fun of the nerds (not necessarily a bad thing), Darkon looks like such an amazing film because it takes its subject matter seriously and delves into the hows and whys of the alternate lives these people lead. No word yet on when this movie may be released to a wider audience but I can’t wait to see it. Check out the trailer now at the official website… it is absolutely inspirational.

Darkon - Canadian premiere at HOTDOCS

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Date & Time	Venue	Tickets
Fri Apr 28, 10:15pm	Bloor Cinema	$10.00
Sun Apr 30, 9:00pm	Innis Town Hall	$10.00

INTERNATIONAL SHOWCASE
Darkon
(USA, 2006, 89 min)
Directors: Andrew Neel , Luke Meyer
Once a month in Baltimore, Maryland, hundreds of rational adults don foam padding and tinfoil to act out the role-playing game Darkon. Skip is a househusband who morphs into Bannor, leader of rebels. He fights Keldor, a.k.a. Kenyon, ruler of the vast Mordom empire. They claim it provides the adventure that is missing from their everyday lives. But Skip's description of getting fired from the family business takes on the tone of his field battle-cries. Is Darkon really just an outlet for his daily frustrations, or has the game become a parallel universe in which he can replay his personal failures into victories? As the distinctions between fantasy and reality blur in the minds of the "characters," so do the conventions of filmmaking. The battles are not recreations, nor are they real, creating a fascinating tension between documentary and drama. With humour, insight and above all else, respect, the film does celebrate heroes: the sensitive, creative and alive souls who are brave enough to pick up cardboard swords and take a swing at mediocrity. Myrocia Watamaniuk

Darkon in Wired Magazine - The Players

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When it comes to immersive gameplay, some people just have to get off the couch. They are live-action role-players - Larpers - a catch-all term for the World War II reenactors, medieval militiamen, anime imitators, and other impassioned souls who dress up as characters (fictional or historical) and embrace a new reality. Meet a few of the faithful, wearing costumes of their own design.
- Sonia Zjawinski




Lord General Keldar Vinnerex
aka Kenyon Wells
Game: Darkon, a medieval battlegame
Day job: Manager, IT consulting firm
Age: 36
Years role-playing: 23

Alter ego: Lord General Keldar Vinnerex, cofounder of Mordom, a kingdom within Darkon
The diversion: Started in 1985 in the Baltimore-Washington area, Darkon pits up to 300 players armed with padded weapons against one another in full-contact skirmishes.
Star power: Wells was featured in a documentary about Darkon that premiered at SXSW in March.
On career building: "My first exposure to public speaking was through Darkon," Wells says. "If you can stand in front of 250 people and get them to listen to you, when you actually lecture at work or a trade show, it's a lot easier."

GreenCine Daily - Austin Dispatch 3

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Darkon
Imagine medieval fantasy role-playing as a full-contact sport. On paper, it might not seem particularly interesting but Darkon is perhaps the most exhilarating fun that you'll have at a non-fiction film this year. It could even make LARP a household word and propel Skip Lipman into his destiny as an action hero in Hollywood's inevitable adaptation of Atari Adventure.

VIDEO: DARKON on G4TV's "ATTACK OF THE SHOW"

WHAT: G4 Television’s “Attack of the Show” will include interviews with Andrew, Luke and Skip for their SXSW Film segment.

WHEN: Today, Wednesday, March 22, 7 – 8 pm (the show will re-air tomorrow, March 23 at 3 am, then again at 9 am)

CHANNEL: G4 (Time Warner – channel 105, RCN – channel 147, DirecTV – channel 354, Dish Network – channel 191)

G4TV "Attack of the Show"
South By Southwest Film Festival

Watch the Video
Heavy Metal, Murder Mysteries and....LARP'ing?

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For a couple of weeks every March, Austin, Texas becomes the hippest city in the known universe, as the South By Southwest Festival descends on this sleepy little Central Texas town and transforms it to one of the best showcases for known and unknown bands and films from around the world.

Today we check out the film part of the festival. Brendan was a fan of Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, Cassidy Kids, S&Man and most importantly, Darkon, the greatest LARP movie ever made.

DARKON - REVIEWS FROM SXSW

EFILMCRITIC.COM - *****
"Darkon" is easily one of the documentary highlights of the 2006 SXSW Film Festival, and I expect it'll earn a swell of grass-roots support not unlike those for "Murderball" and "Spellbound." ....
READ MORE

FILMTHREAT.COM - *****
You can’t go wrong with “Darkon.” It’s an epic fantasy adventure with loads of laughs, starring a bunch of people who, believe it or not, you wish you were.
READ MORE

POPMATTERS.COM
The film, too, takes Darkon seriously, which is what makes it so rewarding to watch. It could have easily poked fun at the players, asking us to laugh at their elaborate illusions and awkward anachronism. Instead, Darkon invites us into their world, employing sweeping camera cranes to endow key battle scenes with all the drama and excitement of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
READ MORE

AINTITCOOLNEWS.COM
This documentary explores that idea in depth. If you were never that kid who got to shine in the spotlight, but had dreams of being something more than you ever were, this film is for you.
READ MORE

JOBLO.COM
One of the absolute highlights of the festival so far, Darkon had my fellow audience members clapping, laughing, and cheering with delight. This flick's gonna earn some attention soon, book it.
READ MORE

STAR-TELEGRAM
Judging from the enthusiastic response from the full-house screening Saturday, Darkon just might find itself at a multiplex near you.
READ MORE

GREENCINE DAILY
As the credits rolled, the crowd thundered and whooped and whistled and if there was a distributor in the audience, s/he'll know what to do.
READ MORE

DTHEATRE.COM - Dig the Trailers for LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE And DARKON!

Dig the Trailers for LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE And DARKON! (HOMEPAGE)
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Darkon, a wild looking docum-entary about D&D players gone nuts who actualize their fantasy worlds and go all Braveheart on each other in open fields. Little Miss Sunshine was the hit at January's Sundance festival. It's a family comedy that stars Steve Carrell and others.

MOVIES.COM - MIKE'S BUZZBIN

http://movies.go.com/buzzbin


The Da Vinci Code
Good Things Come in Small Packages Finally, the full trailer. Yeah, you see the opening murder scene, but what's really cool is the Smart car product placement. With one of those, my Eurotrash transformation would be complete!


Snakes on a Plane
Instant Camp Classic Sam Jackson has had enough of these snakes! The first clip is so ridiculous that it's brilliant. Well, as brilliant as a bunch of snakes on a plane can be.


Poseidon
Surf's Up I don't knock the trailer for being a cheese-ball Titanic rip-off. But I do have a problem with a giant wave that breaks in the middle of the ocean. I'm no physics major, but as far as I know, the condition for wave-breaking is when a wave reaches the shore and enters water that is approximately 1.3 times as deep as the wave is high. Duh

Mission: Impossible III
I Demand Answers! I've watched the new stateside trailer and the Japanese version 10 times, and I still can't figure out the plot. Why does Philip Seymour Hoffman wanna kill Tom Cruise? Why is Tom blowing up fancy cars? Isn't Keri Russell in this movie? Why isn't she around? Can someone explain all this? Please?

Trust the Man vs. I Am a Sex Addict
Superfreaks Who's more disturbing than David Duchovny's porn-lovin' perv in the Trust the Man trailer? This guy.

Darkon
Frequently Mispronounced "Dorkon" Here's the hilarious trailer for the live-action role-playing doc that was a hit at the SXSW film fest. Warning: The nerd factor is extremely high. In fact, you might become a nerd just by watching it. Weird — I'm suddenly feeling the urge to buy some 20-sided dice.

Spider-Man 3
I Love It When a Plan Comes Together It took a long time, but I've finally found a reason to see the next Will Ferrell movie, Talladega Nights: the Spidey 3 teaser. Wait — the previews are before the movie. So I can just leave right after!

VARIETY:'Free' reigns over SXSW film festival

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'Free' reigns over SXSW film festival
'AMERICANese' wins fest's audience pick
By IAN MOHR

Helming duo Andy Robin and Gregg Kavet's "Live Free or Die" won the top jury prize at the Southwest Film Conference & Festival at Tuesday night's kudos ceremony.
Fest, which runs through Saturday at the Austin Convention Center, hands out prizes at its midway point.

"Darkon," Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer's look at a world of role-playing gamers who take a realistic, intricate battle game to extremes, was named SXSW's aud award winner in the docu category.

Buyers were circling docus including "Jam," "Darkon," "Maxed Out" and Annabelle Gurwitch's "Fired!"

IndieWire Blog: DARKON BLING

At the Darkon party earlier this week we met a few of the 'tribe' (is that what you call them?!) and one of them crossed my palm with a coin from their realm. Sadly it's not belgian chocolate but nevertheless it has a certain talismanic quality....

DARKON Wins SXSW Film Festival Audience Award Best Doc

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Byler's "AMERICANese" Wins Two at SXSW; "Darkon," "Jam," and "Live Free or Die" Also Win Top Prizes
by Eugene Hernandez (March 14, 2006)

At the midpoint of the 2006 SXSW Film Conference and Festival here in Austin, organizers presented jury and audience prizes for this year's festival. Eric Byler's "AMERICANese" won two prizes tonight in Austin, receiving the narrative audience award and a special jury prize for outstanding ensemble cast. The win was particularly sweet for Byler, since he also won the audience prize at SXSW four years ago for his previous feature, "Charlotte Sometimes". The festival's narrative jury award went to Andy Robin and Gregg Kavet's "Live Free or Die". Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer's "Darkon" won the documentary audience award and Mark Woollen's "Jam" was the jury prize winner in the doc competition.

AUDIENCE AWARDS
Documentary Feature
Winner:
"Darkon" Dir. Andrew Neel & Luke Meyer

Darkon wins Best Doc Audience Award at SXSW

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'Americanese' tops SXSW list with 2 awards
15 March 2006 (The Hollywood Reporter)

NEW YORK -- Austin's South by Southwest Film Festival announced its jury and audience award winners Wednesday. Gregg Kavet and Andy Robin's crime caper Live Free or Die took home narrative feature honors from the jury, while Eric Byler's romantic dramedy Americanese won the audience award in the same category. The latter also garned a special jury prize for ensemble cast, making it the only film to nab two honors. The jury awarded Mark Woolen's roller derby-themed "Jam" best documentary feature and gave a special jury prize to James D. Scurlock's credit card docu Maxed Out. Audiences went for Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel's medieval fantasy game study, Darkon, as best docu feature.

FilmThreat.com - Darkon - Five Stars

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By Eric Campos
*****(Five Stars)

2006, Un-rated, 100 minutes

In the soccer fields of Baltimore, there wages a war between rival countries in the domain of Darkon. This is a time of high adventure. This is also a time of dedicated role playing gamers beating the spaghettios out of each other with foam covered weapons.
Darkon is a live action role playing game that gathers some couple thousand active members in Baltimore, Maryland, often in a soccer field, for simulated, unchoreographed medieval battles. Dressed in homemade armor and costumes and brandishing foam padded weapons often made of PVC pipe or wood, gamers join one of the warring countries in anticipation for a mid-afternoon smackdown. And while these fights are simulated, it’s still a full contact game, so the weak of heart and brittle of bone should…well…watch their ass.

But it’s not all just skull cracking fun. Gamers taking part in the world of Darkon find themselves developing relationships with other players, buying special powers to use in future battles, making treaties, learning bizarre languages and partying around bonfires. Gamers become completely folded into this world and if they had it their way, they would never leave…in fact, from the looks of it, some never do.

“Darkon” takes a look at several of these players who use the game to gain some power in their lives where they are otherwise under the thumb of an oppressive reality. Right away you identify this movie as a "Trekkies," laugh at the obsessed nerds, type of doc. But as we get to know these gamers more and we hear them present their cases for this gaming obsession, we realize that, while existing in the world of Darkon, they’re some of the happiest people on Earth. They’re a really smart, charming bunch (okay, some of these dudes are a little spooky), constantly using their imaginations and creating and that’s quite a bit more than you can say for many other people out there leading dull existences with no creative outlet. So in the end, you’re not laughing at these guys because they’re a bunch of weirdos, you’re laughing in celebration of their unbridled passion.

But, rather than focus entirely on the lives of these gamers and the backstory of the game and its rules, the filmmakers of “Darkon” have decided to drop their audience right into the middle of the battlefield. Viewers are immersed in this world with sweeping camera work, featuring helicopter shots of the battlefield, and an epic fantasy score. It’s obvious that the film has been made by people with a strong love for the game and they do everything in their power to make their audience understand what it’s like to live in Darkon. They succeed.

You can’t go wrong with “Darkon.” It’s an epic fantasy adventure with loads of laughs, starring a bunch of people who, believe it or not, you wish you were.

PopMatters.com - SXSW 2006 - Darkon

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By Tobias Peterson

Perhaps you've seen them at your local park. You might have encountered them on your weekend jog, blissfully trotting along the path when you come upon a group of screaming adolescents in cardboard helmets, walloping the beejesus out of one another with foam-tipped swords and crying "for sooth!" and "have at thee!" And, more than likely, you went quickly on your way, muttering something about "Dungeons & Dragons dorks" as you did.

Well, OK. Maybe that was just me. But, after watching Darkon, I've come to recognize my insensitive prejudices. The film sets the record straight about these LARPers (Live Action Role Play), exploring the complex and rich world that they inhabit as an important source of community. Specifically, we follow a group of players who inhabit the mythic realm of Darkon (aka Baltimore, Maryland), a fictional world comprised of various countries and tribes that battle one another for influence and territory. The group, we learn, has converted the sprawling suburbs of the city into a detailed map comprised of hexagonal land holdings. The more "hexes" a kingdom occupies, the more influence its members have in the game. Such territory is most often won or lost on the battlefield, where players don hand-sewn costumes and elaborate armor to settle the matter as knight of old used to do, more or less.

The conversion of strip malls into imaginary city states may seem like idle fantasy, but the film is sympathetic to the Darkonians, foregrounding interviews with players who make the compelling case that this kind of imaginary escape is really no different from other strategies that people employ to forget the dull and drab surroundings of their unremarkable lives. More than one participant voices a deep dissatisfaction with their job or relationship, and to a person, the players assert the importance of Darkon in providing an exciting escape from the humdrum world of strip malls and nine-to-fives. As the film's tagline reads, "Everybody wants to be a hero."

As Darkon chronicles the pursuit of this excitement, the players enjoy a highly complicated relationship with their alter egos. Characters in Darkon are frequently the embodiment of who the player would like to be in real life. An overweight kid who's nervous and shy around girls, for example, becomes a womanizing rogue. The copy clerk who suffers daily abuse at work becomes a backstabbing tyrant who vents his pent up aggression on the field of battle. And while the participants themselves repeatedly make a distinction about what happens in the game and what happens in real life, the line is not always so clear. Betrayals in the realm of Darkon lead to broken friendships in real life. Imaginary relationships with other characters cause complications with spouses who, understandably, don't see their husbands running around in the woods with scantily dressed nymphs as simply partaking in harmless fantasy play.

The film, too, takes Darkon seriously, which is what makes it so rewarding to watch. It could have easily poked fun at the players, asking us to laugh at their elaborate illusions and awkward anachronism. Instead, Darkon invites us into their world, employing sweeping camera cranes to endow key battle scenes with all the drama and excitement of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Thanks to these tactics, the audience is drawn deeper into the intrigue that threatens the stability of the realm. Will Laconia manage to lead a rebel alliance against the imperial forces of Mordom? Or will the dark elves help the Mordomian empire stamp out their attempted insurrection? Darkon manages to transform these fantastical musings into serious, intriguing questions, making me re-evaluate the medieval antics of those kids I used to scoff at in the park.

Efilmcritic.com - Darkon

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"Welcome to Medieval Baltimore!"
Reviewed By Scott Weinberg

*****(FIVE STARS)(Awesome)

We all wear masks, play games, and assume roles when certain situations arise. Whether you act like a corporate suit in order to earn your weekly paycheck, dress up like a stormtrooper for Halloween, or paint your face for a football game, you're a role player. The guys who play Darkon are big-time role-players, too, and they seem to have a blissfully good time while doing it.

"Darkon" is a LARP game, LARP being the acronym for Live Action Role Playing, which is a lot like Everquest or Ultima, only you play it with your own body and homemade weapons instead of an Xbox or a computer screen. At first glance, the Darkon dudes seem a little ... odd. But you know what's also a rather odd game? Bowling. Both activities require teamwork, practice, and offbeat clothes -- but only one of 'em lets you swing a sword at your next door neighbor while collecting gold pieces that you can exchange for magic spells and armor upgrades.

So yeah: the game of Darkon looks a little bit strange to the uninitiated. But thanks to directors Andrew Neel & Luke Meyer, you can now become one of the initiated -- and have a wonderfully entertaining 90 minutes at the same time.

Darkon takes you inside the game as it's played by a bunch of passionate and excited Baltimorians, and the filmmakers approach the game (and its players) with such a objective air of respect that it's tough not to get sucked right in. Walking into the screening, I was afraid Darkon would be one of those "let's laugh at the geeks" docos (not unlike some of the Star Wars / Star Trek ones I've seen), but those concerns melted away after about 4.2 minutes. The gamers themselves seem a passionate and articulate group, and their opinions on how we all live in our own particular fantasy worlds are as insightful as they are correct.

Darkon works as a fascinating and colorful documentary about an endearingly bizarre game and as a "can't wait to see who wins" sports film. (And as a nifty little comedy, too, actually.) As Neel & Meyer introduce us to an eclectic crew of Darkoneers, the game suddenly doesn't seem so "weird" anymore -- plus these are some seriously likable fantasy geeks we're visiting with here. Interesting enough for being an intro to the world of Darkon, the flick earns some serious bonus points for treating its subjects with dignity, respect, and an appreciable sense of irreverence. The festival audience I saw the movie with seemed to be in strong agreement, as the screening was laden with hearty laughs, victorious cheers, and a few enthusiastic rounds of well-earned applause.

"Darkon" is easily one of the documentary highlights of the 2006 SXSW Film Festival, and I expect it'll earn a swell of grass-roots support not unlike those for "Murderball" and "Spellbound." The flick might not be destined for an Oscar nomination, but I'd bet big money it'll find loads of appreciative audiences on the festival circuit before some daring distributor takes a chance on this effortlessly excellent little flick. (Plus, doco Oscar noms are a freaking joke these days.)

Dallas Morning News - Darkon - Podcast With Directors

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JoBlo.com - SXSW Fest Day #2

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By Scott Weinberg

LARP means Live Action Role Playing, which means that if you love Ultima or Everquest, you just might wanna don some armor buy a sword, and get down with the real thing. Directors Andrew Neel & Luke Meyer take their cameras to a Darkon war in Baltimore, and the result is a documentary that's equal parts sweet, silly, warm, and inspiring. Sure it's a little strange to watch a bunch of adults running around with swords and stuff ... but only for about the first five minutes. Once you get your brain wrapped around how the game works, and what it means to the thousands (yes, thousands) of participants, you're already halfway in love with this doco. It honors the crazy gamers by maintaining a healthy respect for the players, and it goes a whole lot farther than that. One of the absolute highlights of the festival so far, Darkon had my fellow audience members clapping, laughing, and cheering with delight. This flick's gonna earn some attention soon, book it.

GreenCine Daily - Austin Dispatch. 2.

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The first surprise to hit me at last night's screening of Darkon (screenings) were the crowds. Who were all these people who wanted to see a bunch of managers, Starbucks employees, fabric buyers and house dads dress up in no-budget homemade Lord of the Rings outfits and hit each other with foam-covered wooden sticks? I, for one, was not among them - until I saw the trailer. Curiosity piqued, I'd soon discover that this is an all-too-rare case of an already intriguing trailer actually underselling the film.

Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer have made several very smart decisions about their fundamental approach to the story they have to tell. They treat these weekend role-players with utmost respect, convincing you, by example, to do so as well (you may have a different set of fantasies and desires that have nothing to do with acting out some medieval board game in the city park, but have you actually acted on yours lately?). They switch from standard documentary mode - talking heads mixed with handheld vérité -to Peter Jackson mode each time the game fires up; that is, we, via swooping helicopter and crane shots, whatever it takes, swept up in the game ourselves. Focusing primarily on Skip Lipman, the house dad, they tell parallel stories, one beginning in the world of the game, the other in the plain vanilla world, of how a plan to usurp the throne leads to newly forged alliances, betrayals, intrigue, triumph, disappointment - and fresh starts. As the credits rolled, the crowd thundered and whooped and whistled and if there was a distributor in the audience, s/he'll know what to do.

IFC BLOG - Kenny and Dianna Say Hello

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Saturday we caught the premiere of "Rank," an IFC doc about professional bull riding, as well as "Darkon," Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer's doc about live action role playing. More about each later, as we're about to run off to another screening, but for now, some photos from the "Darkon" pre-screening LARPing demonstration:

Star-Telegram - SXSW notebook

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Dark Star
by Cary Darling

Remember this word: Darkon.

That’s the title of what may turn out to be one of the most popular films at the festival.

A friendly yet unexpectedly deep and human look at the world of “larping” (live-action role playing; think of a three-dimensional “Dungeons & Dragons” played outdoors), this documentary introduces the audience to an unexplored social universe and raises some interesting questions without making fun of those involved.

It might be tempting at first to write off the participants as geeks with no lives, but first-time filmmakers Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer dig beneath the stereotypes.

Judging from the enthusiastic response from the full-house screening Saturday, Darkon just might find itself at a multiplex near you.

AINTITCOOLNEWS.COM - Darkon Review

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By Moriarty
From the Paramount, I sped-walked over to the convention center to check out a film called Darkon. Darkon is a mystical land comprised of various realms each with their own rulers and kingdom assets. Darkon is a place where the dark elves can be bought, and then paid to betray those who paid for their services. Darkon is in Baltimore.
This documentary follows a growing trend called LARPing. LARPing is Live-Action Role Playing; Dungeons and Dragons in real life without a board between you and your Cheeto eating pals. It includes aspects of role-playing, war games and straight-up beating the hell out of each other with padded sticks.
The movie follows a few different Darkon members, but mostly stays with a new hero of mine by the name of Skip Lipman, who is really Bannor of Laconia. Bannor is determined to bring the various lands of Darkon together to take down the larger oppressing force that currently rules over Darkon. This guy rules.
The entire film made me smile. From the very opening moments of the film where we see the dark elves sacrificing a woman to the tense moment a Dennys where an allegiance is broken between friends. These people care for what they do. As painful as it is to hear a younger members story about being ridiculed in high school, to see him truly shine on the imagined battlefields of Darkon is wonderful. This movie is for those of you who always wanted to be the hero but were never good enough to be on the football team, or sink the game-winning shot at the buzzer. In the fantasy world of Darkon, anyone can be what they want to be. This documentary explores that idea in depth. If you were never that kid who got to shine in the spotlight, but had dreams of being something more than you ever were, this film is for you.

Austin Cronicle: The Luv Doc (SXSW Film Screening of Darkon)

SXSW Film Screening of Darkon
Saturday Mar 11, 11:00AM
Austin Convention Center , 500 E. Cesar Chavez , 476-5461
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You might want to layer up, it’s about to get cool. That’s right, the glamour train of SXSW 2006 arrives this Friday as thousands of unrepentant hipsters from all over the world descend on Austin to revel in our “realness.” Sure, the pressure of having to be real all the time is a bit intimidating. Every once in a while you want to just relax and be fake; slip into the comfortable persona of someone you’re not, but during SXSW your realness has to be on 24/7, so look sharp. Wait a minute … scratch that. You may want to go with something a little grubbier – not some sort of pretentious, faux-skanky alt-rocker look, but a genuinely wack, just-rolled-out-of-bed-and-going-to-get-coffee-and-breakfast-tacos look. Don’t put too much effort into it, but try something frumpy like Old Navy jammy bottoms (ideally with a wildlife theme and an improvised ventilation hole in the gluteal region) fuzzy socks from Target, a pair of bright purple Crocs and a beer-stained T-shirt that says “Kiss Me I’m Irish.” Feel free to improvise, but what you’re aiming for is the kind of postcard-back-to-Monaco “realness” that causes trendy types to convulse in envy; the kind of “realness” that has them scrambling for their Blackberries so they can text-message their PAs about the local fauna. Also, remember to smile and say “thanks,” and hold the door open. Force yourself to be a decent human being. That way, Austin will seem so “real” it’s almost “unreal” … sort of like a reality themepark. If by Saturday, you’re overdosing on reality, you can heal yourself at the Austin Convention Center by attending the 6:45pm SXSW screening of Darkon, a documentary about a full-contact medieval fantasy war-gaming group that has been escaping reality in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area since 1985. Eight dollars gets you in unless the badge-holders overrun the place, which is a real possibility, so bring a sense of irony.

TORONTO STAR - "Bigger doesn't mean blander"

Bigger doesn't mean blander
Mar. 10, 2006. 01:00 AM
GEOFF PEVERE
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AUSTIN, TEX.—As the once-maverick Sundance Film Festival has for years now, the annual South by Southwest Film, Interactive and Music Conference is being accused of selling out and growing beyond its small-fest roots.

Certainly there are signs that the event, which began in 1987 with the purpose of showcasing local music talent that the rest of the country was ignoring (and which attracted 700 fans), has reached the end of its scrappy adolescence.

Partly it's the size. Last year, some 15,000 attended the conference and this year the number is expected to be even higher.

As indie film incubator Sundance has grown over its 25-year history — from two theatres and fewer than 300 people in attendance, to some 600 screenings by 200 filmmakers, as actor Robert Redford reminded the crowd at the opening ceremonies in January — so has SXSW.

This year SXSW is featuring nearly 250 movies (115 features and 130 shorts), hundreds of bands and dozens of panel discussions ranging from public Q&A sessions with the Beastie Boys, Kris Kristofferson, Henry Rollins and Neil Young to such forbidding-sounding exchanges as "Sony's XDCam HD: the Next Generation of Tapeless Workflow Innovation" and "Convergence and Transformation: A Whole New Creative World."...

...There will be much to see, do and listen to in the next 10 days, but already I can feel my critical impulses drawing me toward those movies (my colleague Ben Rayner will be covering the music side of the event) that are direct reflections of the fully converged media universe. And there are a lot of them. Movies about music (Before the Music Dies, Pick Up the Mic, loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies), Internet porn (LOL), hot rod culture (Tales of the Ratfink), gaming cults (Darkon), multicultural experience (Eve and the Firehorse, AMERICANese), credit card debt (Maxed Out) — even gambling addiction (Even Money).

Salon.com - mention for darkon

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The abridged version:
From Andrew O’Hehir’s column:

I'm off to the capital of the Lone Star State as you read this, and Beyond the Multiplex will break free of its weekly straitjacket to
report from the South by Southwest Film Festival over the next few days.

Stay tuned: I'll be checking in from several world premieres, including Robert Altman and Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion" (a tongue-in-cheek, behind-the-scenes fictional film about the venerable radio show); the new documentary "Al Franken: God Spoke";"loudQUIETloud," a rockumentary on last year's Pixies reunion tour, and countless other delights. As at any festival, the greatest stuff is always unexpected; I don't know if that's going to mean the movie about full-contact medieval warfare re-enactors or the one entirely about a guy who runs the register at the Wendy's franchise on the University of Texas campus.