Danny Ledonne

Danny Ledonne
Ledonne at the Montreal Independent Games Summit in November 2007.
Born	Danny Antonio Ledonne (1982-01-18) January 18, 1982 Alamosa, Colorado, US
Alma mater	American University
Occupation	Film director, producer
Years active	2002–present

Danny Antonio Ledonne (born January 18, 1982) is an American film director and former video game developer. From 2011 to 2014, he worked as a professor in Film and Media Arts at American University and served on the board of the Southern Colorado Film Commission and became the director for the 2015 edition of the festival.^[1][2][3] He is possibly best known for the documentary Playing Columbine about the controversy surrounding his 2005 video game Super Columbine Massacre RPG!.

Early life

Ledonne attended the Alamosa High School in Colorado. He graduated from school with a 4.0 grade point average and was voted "most likely to succeed" by his peers.^[4] From here he went on to study film at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.^[5] It was during his time at college that he discovered a programme called RPG Maker, which allowed a developer to create and design their own game for the PC. In 2005 he released his first and to date only video game called Super Columbine Massacre RPG! that replayed the events of the Columbine High School massacre. Ledonne created the game to explore what caused the gunmen to commit the atrocity and to dispel the myths that violent video games had played a role in the massacre.^[6] Upon its release, the game was met with heavy criticism from the public and the mainstream media over the subject matter of the RPG and even led PC World to declaring it the game #2 on its list of "The 10 Worst Games of All Time."^[7][8]

Ledonne defended the game despite its negative reaction citing that the story of the attackers resonated with him with his experience at school. He said:

"I was an easy target to be picked on, and that started in kindergarten," he said. "It was the kind of bullying that most kids who were bullied experienced [...] When you get pushed every day, and when you are ostracized not once, not twice, but years in and out, your perception of reality is distorted [...] These things really do warp your understanding and your perception of humanity in some almost irrevocable way,"^[9]

Since the games release, Ledonne has become an unwitting champion for video games,^[10] despite Super Columbine Massacre being the only game he ever created.

Film career

Upon graduating from college, Ledonne worked on narrative and documentary short films such as 'Solace,' 'The Unbelievable Truth,' 'The Good Life,' 'Super 7,' and 'Wild Animals, Domesticated Humans' (which he wrote and directed).^[11] In 2002, he produced and directed a Brickfilm animated adaptation of Ship of Fools, a cautionary parable of industrial society written from prison by Ted Kaczynski.^[12]

In 2007, he produced and edited the full-length documentary, Playing Columbine.^[13] The film features over fifty interviews with game industry leaders, theorists, and developers, authors, filmmakers, journalists, elected officials, school shooting survivors, concerned citizens, festival organizers, media activists, free speech loyalists, and videogame players. In the film, the controversy surrounding Super Columbine Massacre RPG! is chronicled. By featuring numerous independent games including Super Columbine Massacre RPG!, the film examines the videogame/real world violence debate as well as exploring the future of interactive media's potential to confront serious issues.

The film features notable figures including Jack Thompson, Hal Halpin, Doug Lowenstein, Jason Della Rocca, Jenova Chen, Brian Flemming, and the hosts of Free Talk Live. It has screened at film festivals such as the Denver Film Festival^[14] and AFI Fest.^[15]

In 2011, Ledonne released his 2nd documentary Duck! (A Documentary) exploring the different species and natures of ducks across North America.^[16]

Campaign Work

In 2013, Ledonne helped found the Keep Polston Public group in Alamosa, Colorado. The group was formed in opposition to the handover of the derelict site of the former Polston Elementary School to a private enterprise who would transform the area into an RV resort and demolish the community garden that had occupied the site during the schools operational years in the late 1990s and after its closure. As the only Alamosa native in the KPP and a former pupil of the school, Ledonne played a crucial role in the organization and helped the group work with legal consultants to challenge the schools decision citing that it may have been illegal on several counts. After the challenge failed, the group filed a lawsuit alleging that the school board ad violated Colorado Open Meeting Law, the states constitution and the Colorado Public Schools Act procedure for sale of real estate. In 2014, the group agreed to drop the lawsuit in exchange for the chance to buy the property for $900,000.^{[17][18][19][20]} The full sum was successfully raised and purchased by purchased by the Trust for Public Land and is now owned outright by the San Luis Valley Local Foods Coalition.^[21]

Teaching Career and ASU Lawsuit

In May 2011, Ledonne became a part-time film instructor at the Adams State University is in Alamosa. During his time there, he taught 3 courses during a semester under the mass communication programme and carried out video productions services on behalf of the university. He also served on the board of the Southern Colorado Film Commission for a number of years and became the festivals director in 2015. Ledonne was later made a full-time visiting professor, with full benefits.

During the latter months of his final contract with the university, Ledonne established the website ‘’Watching Adams’’ a blog that discussed and often criticised the administrators of the institution. Amongst many of his posts, Ledonne brought light to a situation regarding the indifferences in the pay structure between administrative and academic staff. In some cases, it was found that athletic and administrative staff made 120 percent or more of industry benchmarks, academic faculty made 80 percent or even less.

Within two days of the post regarding the pay structure being published, University President Beverlee McClure issued Ledonne with a ‘No Trespass Order’ of the university campus and its buildings on the grounds that his behaviour was deemed to be disruptive, detrimental and posed a safety risk to the university. The university labelled Ledonne as a "terrorist" and that any attempt to enter the campus would have result in him being arrested.^[22][23][24] The ban also prohibited Ledonne from attending the 2015 edition of the Southern Colorado Film Festival in which he was the president of and was there forced to resign from his post.

In February 2016, the ACLU launched a legal bid to reverse the ban on the grounds that the university had no legitimate basis for banning Ledonne and that the action had been defamatory to his character as there was no evidence that he had ever engaged in any threats of violence, direct or indirect, toward anyone or anything at the university. It was also argued that the action had vindicate Ledonne’s First Amendment right to criticise the operations of the university. Both parties eventually entered into mediation before a former federal judge that resulted in a settlement agreement where Adams State University would repeal the ban and pay $100,000 in compensation for the ordeal.

Speaking about the settlement, Ledonne said:

"I sought this legal action to challenge the university’s heavy-handed attempt to discourage me and others who disagree with the administration from speaking out,” he said via a statement from the ACLU. “I am very satisfied with the settlement and look forward to continuing my work in this community"^[25]

Awards

Personal life

He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Film & Electronic Media at American University in Washington, D.C.

Ledonne has a black belt in Taekwondo^[28]

References

External links

• Emberwilde Productions official website
• Danny Ledonne on IMDb
• New York Times story on Ledonne and SCMRPG
• Interview published 2006-05-24 on kotaku.com
• Interview published 2006-09-20 on kotaku.com
• Interview published 2007-01-11 on Arthouse Games
• Interview published 2007/11-28 in the Montreal Mirror
• Danny Ledonne and Jack Thompson on Free Talk Live radio
• NOAA Marine Debris videos by Danny Ledonne
• Official homepage of 'Playing Columbine' (documentary)
• "These games really push our buttons" on MSNBC
• 'Playing Columbine Review' in Variety