Marwencol (on DVD)

Marwencol
[DVD Biography Hogancamp] 

Having seen trailers for the upcoming (Dec 2018) film Welcome to Marwen, starring Steve Carrell, I was aware that that film was based on a man’s real-life experiences. It turns out, this 2010 documentary already tells this tale, in a effective way.

Mark Hogancamp was brutally attacked by 5 young men outside his neighborhood bar in Kingston, NY, and was left in a brain-damaged coma for 9 days. The bones of his face had to be reconstructed. When he awoke from his coma, most of his memory had been destroyed, and he had to relearn how to walk, talk, and function in society. when lack of money caused his therapy to be cut off, he came up with a unique and distinctive new form of therapy for himself.

Using scrap supplies and intricately-detailed 1/6-scale dolls, Mark created an elaborate fantasy world in his back yard, which he called Marwencol, Belgium. It featured multiple buildings, and characters set during the conflict of World War II. One of the dolls was his own alter ego, and the rest were the town’s residents — all women — and the Nazi SS troops that would frequently menace the town. Through made-up adventures and relationships between the dolls, Mark is able to cope with his own messed-up memories and fear of social interaction following his assault. As a photographer, Hogancamp documented the happenings in Marwencol with highly detailed photographs of the dolls, telling the stories of his made-up adventures.

When a friend brings Hogancamp’s photographs to the attention of the New York arts community, and an exhibit of his work is created, he must come to terms with his world expanding and his circle of contacts growing beyond the small number of “locals” he associates with. At the same time, Hogancamp must wrestle with the difficulties of being true to himself in other ways.

I’ll be interested to see what Oscar-winning filmmaker Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump) does to make this a drama film — the trailers for that upcoming feature show the doll figures coming to life on screen. However, this documentary truly humanizes Hogancamp’s experiences, and through his extensive interview commentary, we get a fascinating look inside the mind and mental processes of someone recovering from brain damage in the only way that makes sense to him.

This is a truly compelling film.

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this documentary ] | [ official Marwencol web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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