Playing Columbine Now Available on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video

Playing Columbine is now available on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video and soon will be available via Netflix. The documentary chronicles the controversy surrounding the making of Super Columbine Massacre, a game that let players jump into the boots of the Columbine killers. The game was downloaded more than a half a million times and caught the attention of the mainstream media who strongly condemned it as wrong and as a "murder simulator." Here's an excerpt from the film's about page":

"While created to reflect upon the shooting at Columbine and provide critical commentary on the media's incitement of "moral panic" over videogames in the aftermath of the tragedy, SCMRPG itself inadvertently became yet another layer in the debate it was attempting to engage in. Playing Columbine brings together 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 to examine the issues surrounding the future of videogames as an art form and how one game has touched upon the larger development of an emergent form of expression.

Doubtless videogames offer a new type of experience to audiences - not just banal space battles and street fights - but also about the world we live in. What does it mean to play Columbine? What can we gain from interactive media - particularly with regard to difficult subject matter? And, of course, why is playing Columbine so controversial when watching or reading about it has become commonplace?"

You can learn more about the film at playingcolumbine.com.