Hot Docs 2012 - Indie Game (Swirsky & Pajot, 2012) ***

 Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky's first feature documentary Indie Game: The Movie is a surprisingly heartfelt look at the undocumented trials and tribulations of a new breed of independent video game developers, who put their lives and their finances on the line to create state of the art video games that are both deeply personal artistic expressions and highly lucrative products. The film follows three games, each with their respective creators, looking to take advantage of the completely revolutionized video game distribution model that has allowed independent developers to flourish and create legitimate businesses for themselves. There's the egotistical perfectionist Phil Fish from Montreal, whose game Fez has been in development for almost half a decade; Edmund and Tommy, highly quirky, intense nerd-types about to release Super Meat Boy; and Jonathan, a developer out of San Francisco, whose Braid was a smash hit before the film was released, struggling to cope with the emotional impact of the game's success.

For a film about guys sitting on their computers all day, the directors actually wring an enormous amount of emotion out of their subjects. Super Meat Boy developer Tommy, in particular is a multifaceted, highly complex and at times psychologically difficult person. We see him taking insulin shots after eating meals, expounding on his social awkwardness, going as far as discussing death if his game is not completed. Phil Fish also openly contemplates suicide on camera, his enormous ego being driven to its limit as his personal life crumbles and a former business partner threatens the release of the game. Film has great production values too despite it's crowdfunded budget, with some of the best visual respresentaions of 2D and 3D video games ever seen on screen.

Indie Game is a tad on the long side, though. At times the film feels overwrought, as all the main subjects are consistently on the verge of a panic attack. A sharper edit could have fixed some of the apparent fat that hangs off the film as we wait for stories to find their climax. Swirsky and Pajot have recently inked a deal to option their film as a television show, produced by Scott Rudin, Ron Howard and airing on HBO. This is a film not just for video gamers, but people interested in the immense challenges associated with investing everything into an art form and praying that it will all be worth it someday.