Playing ColumbineIn 2005, Danny Ledonne created the game "Super Columbine Massacre RPG!" a game that allowed players to reenact the columbine school shooting as the killers in a 16-bit RPG world. The game spawned a lot of controversy in September 2006 after it was discovered that the Dawson college shooter had played the game. Although Ledonne has defended his game on numerous occasions this film, directed by Ledonne allows him take a step further. The movie takes a look at his game, the controversy surrounding it and allows him to express and defend his point of view. He also uses the opportunity to talk about the gaming industry and the public's opinion of video games.
The movie is split into 4 chapters, the first examines his game and the initial reaction, the second talks about the Dawson shooting and some student reactions, the third talks about the Slamdance controversy (his game was banned from the game competition and blocked from being given a special jury prize) and the fourth and final chapter discusses the future of gaming as an artistic, political and influential medium.
The movie is conducted as a series of fast edited talking head interviews. Gaming industry experts, Slamdance jury members and organizers, school shooting victims, doctors, radio hosts, people that had played his game and other relevant characters all give their input of the specific topics at hand.
The film has the same problem that a lot of documentary films have, as that it asks a lot of questions and shows us a lot of facts but gives very little answers. In that regard it was lacking. In another regard, Ledonne with his film is the only person asking these questions; questions that as a gamer I feel are incredibly important and relevant and should be discussed to a greater extent. I wouldn't mind seeing a Playing Columbine part 2 where gaming industry experts keep the discussion going. Grand Theft Auto 4 was released slightly after the completion of this movie and it would be a very good starting point to kick off a discussion about how mainstream video gaming can act as art. GTA4 is a brilliant satire of American culture.
And I quote TIME magazine:
It's ironic that GTA became a football in the debate over sex and violence in video games, because where it belongs is in the debate over whether video games count as art. No game developers are more radical and more passionate about the storytelling power of their medium than folks at Rockstar North, and GTA IV is the company's most ambitious work ever. It's the story of Niko Bellic, an Eastern European soldier-for-hire fighting his way up the organized crime ladder in an archly satirical version of New Yo— I mean, Liberty City. It's a grade-A shoot-'em-up that doubles as an interactive novel and triples as a sly critique of American consumer culture.
Video games are often misunderstood by the older generations and this movie provides a lot of insight on how people view the gaming community and the video game medium as a whole. I could and would have watched a whole 'nother hour of this movie because there is really a lot more to talk about.Not knowing anything about Danny Ledonne and originally disregarding his game as just another bad taste freeware game I was surprised to find someone with a brain behind this project. And although I still would not go about defending the game, I'm glad it was made because of the debates it has spawned. This is a good movie and I hope the gaming industry take the time to look at it and see how they can subtly better their games and make them relevant to the older generations.
Smash CutA low budget Canadian-made horror film, "Smash Cut" tells the story of a desperate horror film director that, after being destroyed by critics for having very fake looking effects, goes on a killing spree to harvest body parts to be used as props in his movies.
Inspired by the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis, "Smash Cut" is a tribute to the exploitative splatter film genre. Its a very funny movie with a bunch of random references and tributes to other movies. The movie is just a fun splatter film with a self-referential twist and outrageous performances by "Last House on the Left's" David Hess. Most of the movie is overacted but its all part of the gag. The movie never tries to hide the fact that it is Canadian made and takes pride in being filmed in Ottawa.
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This was the first movie that I saw at Fantasia where the cast and crew were there to answer questions and I thought it was really cool to get to see the people that were behind and in front of the camera. The cast and crew answered questions from the audience and treated us with a bunch of funny and interesting anecdotes. It was a whole lot of fun.
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