Sadly I apparently missed the airing of Darkonon the IFC. Well, at least it’s getting attention. It’s a great documentary that I saw like a year and a half ago at the Silver Docs festival.
Here’s Slate’s review:
Founded in 1985, Darkon is one of America’s oldest and largest LARPs, and the showdown between two kingdoms within it, Mordom and Laconia, was captured in the documentary Darkon, a movie so mighty it needed two directors (Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer). The film has its television premiere on the IFC Channel tonight at 9 p.m., where it joins the ranks of movies like Hoop Dreams and Murderball as one of the great documentary dissections of how Americans play....
Darkon has 700 members, fielding up to 150 people at any given battle. "The documentary shows us at the height of our imperialistic pretensions," says Kenyon Wells of his country, Mordom. "We’re dominating the world and reveling a bit in being the imperialistic bad guy. We hadn’t lost a land fight, let alone a war, in 15 years." Mordom attracted the best new players, they had the deepest pockets, and they loved winning.
The movie was fantastic because the story it told was interesting. ’Good’ kingdom versus ’evil’ kingdom. House husband versus an executive. The competing leaders are both hams in different ways and a lot of fun, as are the various other participants that get interviewed. That and there’s the clash of foam sword on foam sword. What else could you want?
The DVD apparently comes out late February. I’ll buy it when that happens and have a showing. But prior to that, or for anyone that isn’t in my area, it’s probably worth checking On Demand if you have it to see if you can watch this thing.
Question to Readers: Anyone know any Darkon players? It’s MD/VA based but bizarrely while I was a fencer and knew a fair number of Society for Creative Anachronism guys I had never heard of this particular game before the movie. Go figure. Not looking to join up, I’ve got other empires I’m worried about, but I’d be interested in stories.
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