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The Washington Times, Show Section
November 9, 2007
Photo courtesy of The Washington Times
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Five years ago, filmmaker Andrew Neel thought he was going to make a fictional feature framed around the fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons. Then, during his real-life research, he discovered a gaming community so unique, so replete with visually rich, dreamy drama and so borderline unbelievable that he scrapped his script in favor of a new, documentary tack.
That community was Darkon, a group of several hundred Baltimore- and Washington-area residents who, a few times a month, don medieval armor and descend on a local playing field to wage battles with foam weapons.
If a moment's pause still doesn't allow this concept to sink in fully, perhaps Mr. Neel and co-director Luke Meyer's self-described "ethnographic" film can help; it's also called "Darkon," and it airs this Monday at 9 p.m. on IFC. (It's also coming out on DVD early next year; visit www.darkonthemovie.com for updates.)
The movie might not inspire you to purchase chain mail of your own — but don't be surprised if it teaches you an interesting lesson about the fluid borders between fantasy and reality.
Before we show how Darkonians and the film they inspired erase dividing lines, though, we'd better draw some for clarity's sake.
Reality: Darkon is a full-contact war-gaming group (largely consisting of 16- to 25-year-old males) that has existed since 1985. It belongs to a subset of games called live-action role-playing, or LARP. Which brings us to ...
Fantasy: In order to play, participants must dream up original characters (no Merlin or Ivanhoe) to embody. They can then choose to fight as freelancers or on teams called "countries," which vie for "land" on a map of the imaginary realm.
Reality: Most of the Darkonian action happens every other weekend, when the community hosts one of several types of events — perhaps country-on-country battles staged on school playing fields or a scripted adventure that unfolds over a three-day campout.
Fantasy: The basic rule is that players "die" for 12 minutes of play when they get struck solidly with one of the homemade foam weapons.
Reality: All weapons (swords, flails, javelins, etc.) are thoroughly padded and must undergo a safety check before use to minimize injuries.
For the most part, these aspects of game play fall easily into these two black-and-white categories, and it would seem that Darkonians' in-game and out-of-game lives would do the same (character equals fantasy; work and home life equals reality). However, Mr. Neel and Mr. Meyer's film suggests that things sometimes look a lot grayer when examined at close range.
The movie's basic premise comes from an in-game conflict that bubbled up between two nations before shooting began in 2003. Basically, Bannor of Laconia (Skip Lipman) wants to bring Keldar of Mordom (Kenyon Wells) before a "war crimes tribunal" that can rule on Keldar's reported "dark" and "duplicitous" dealings. Chaotic battles and even building-burning ensue.
In between bits portraying the epic struggle (complete with moody musical score and crane shots) the filmmakers escort us into the private lives of several Darkonians. Getting this kind of behind-the-scenes access initially proved difficult for Mr. Neel and Mr. Meyer because of a stigma that has plagued the LARPing world — the kind that gets players labeled as nerds, losers, childish weirdos, escapists and even Satanists.
Darkonians needed to hear that the filmmakers weren't out to make what Mr. Meyer refers to as a "look-at-the-freaks movie." (See: "Trekkies.") When a critical mass became convinced that the film would validate rather than trivialize their pursuit, several spilled their armor-protected guts.
"Everybody wants to be a hero, and in everyday life, most of the time you don't get to," Mr. Lipman (then a stay-at-home dad) tells the camera. "Most people either spend their time not doing anything or being a victim, and when you're a player character in pretty much any game, you control your fate."
Gary Black, Malkin of Mordom, says the game "allows you to play an aspect of yourself that you may not normally be able to." Mr. Wells explains that leading his in-game country gave him the skills he needed to become an effective manager in his office job.
In a recent interview with several of Mr. Lipman's "countrymen," players also boasted of the brotherhood they have built up through game play, the physical challenge that comes with battle and the imagination that underlies it.
"People don't go to Darkon to escape reality," Mr. Neel said on the phone a few weeks ago. "It allows you to feel real."
So is Darkon evidence that reality is, in fact, what you make it?
Ask a few of the Darkonians who spent years dressing up like "Braveheart" stars only to become actual movie stars when "Darkon" premiered last year.
Mr. Lipman accompanied the film to festivals, including Toronto's Hot Docs, the Los Angeles Film Festival and Austin's South by Southwest, where it won the audience award for documentary feature. (The movie has not had a wide theatrical release.)
"The L.A. Film Fest was my first red-carpet walk," Mr. Lipman told us. "My wife and I started right behind Jeff Goldblum. ... We were literally star-struck."
However, not much seems to have changed in the realm itself post-film. For Mr. Lipman and his fellow Darkonians, it's been battle-business as usual. The outside world is a different story. Thanks to the efforts of two filmmakers, a few folks have been too busy being entertained and, in turn, educated by good cinema to assign things to sharply defined categories like reality and fantasy, oddball and cool-kid.
You tell us if you're one of them on Tuesday morning.
-- Jenny Mayo
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