Marwencol

The very first thing that one notices about Mark Hogancamp are his eyes. They are small and look a little tired, as if he just woke up from a long sleep. There is no distance in his eyes, they don't seem to contain memories. Rather, they seem very much focused on the present. When he speaks he has a sweet-natured voice, solemn and intelligent. There is no regret in his demeanor despite his age which I range at about somewhere in his mid-40s.

The manner in which Hogancamp carries himself is specifically rooted in an incident that changed his life. On April 8, 2000, he was leaving a bar when he was attacked by five men who beat him almost to death. The men were arrested and Hogancamp spent nine days in a coma and forty days in the hospital. When he woke up, he had severe brain damage and most of his memory was gone. Years after his incident, his brain is still a little mushy. He works a quiet job, oddly enough, at The Anchorage, the same bar where he was attacked. Not having memories of the attack, he has no anxieties about working there.

The documentary 'Marwencol' settles firmly on Hogancamp who says that due to his injury he has no real memories, only flashes of memory, like snapshots. He knows of his past because of diary entries written before the attack. He reads them, but doesn't recognize the person who wrote them. He knows that that man was an alcoholic, who was bitter and angry, but he also knows that he had an artistic talent. He shows us sketches that are not out of the ordinary. After the attack, he could no longer draw because his hands shook too much.

He could not afford therapy, so he made his own. In his back yard, he created the tiny, fictional town of Marwencol, a Belgian World War II-era town made of dolls and small buildings. His dolls represent people in his life. His own alter-ego is a hero-type that has a head the looks a little like Harrison Ford. His mother's alter-ego has a head that came from a Pussy Galore doll. His former girlfriend is represented by a Barbie doll. He collects his dolls and studies them, trying to see who they could represent. When he puts his dolls inside the model, they don't just stand stiffly, but they seem modulated as if frozen in a moment of action.

Marwencol becomes Hogancamp's entire world. He creates each character down to the most finite detail, including a backstory. He tells us the stories of what goes on in Marwencol, not as play acting but as if it is really happening. He tells about how his alter-ego wandered into the town and settled down to open a bar. No one is allowed to fight in Marwencol, the only fights are staged catfights inside the bar. Then the Nazi's showed up and he corralled all of the citizenry into his bar while the Nazis kicked down doors trying to find out where it was. His employer Rose is stunned to find that her alter-ego was killed by the Nazis because she wouldn't talk.

What becomes apparent as he tells the story is that Hogancamp isn't just playing with dolls, he is finding a manner in which to deal with his trauma. His alter-ego in Marwencol, is stripped and beaten by the SS just as he was in real life. He cannot remember the attack, he just feeds off of information from his assailant's testimony and from what he has been told. The play acting is a manner in which he can piece that moment together and deal with it on a realistic level.

It is hard to really describe what makes 'Marwencol' really special. It is a quiet, tenderly beautiful story of a man who stepped back from the edge of a near-fatal incident and creates his own therapy through art. The photos he takes of his tiny town are crisp and beautiful (I have featured some of them below). The characters seem alive even though his subjects are immobile. He modulates every single tiny detail perfectly. It is a futile exercise in trying to understand the effect this movie has on you once you let yourself be carried away by Hogancamp's imagination. He takes us so solidly and so convincingly into his tiny man-made world that, after a while, we forget that we are simply looking at dolls. It sounds strange, but I felt I got to know the people Marwencol so well that when one of the women in town left her boyfriend for another man, I felt a little sad.

***1/2 (of four)

Deeply moving documentary about a man, Mark Hogancamp, who suffered a vicious beating at the hands of some thugs who followed him home from a bar. He suffered some pretty horrible brain damage, losing most of his memories. To deal with the pain, Mark created a fantasy world, a small Belgian town in the midst of WWII, Marwencol, populated with dolls which represent people from his own life. The filmmaking is pretty standard doc stuff, but it's well done and the director handles the big reveals fantastically. Hogancamp is such a wonderfully interesting person - and the stories he tells about Marwencol are actually gripping themselves - that I was completely caught up in the movie. It's easily one of last year's best films.

As I've mentioned, when the Cleveland International Film Festival catalog comes out. I read all the summaries and mark the movies I want to see. Marwencol jumped out at me for a few reasons. I had a boyfriend in college who lived near Kingston, NY, where this takes place. It's about a man who recovers from a head injury by building a world of miniatures in his backyard, it becomes therapy. My husband and son are into gaming and miniatures. I thought it sounded very interesting.

Turns out the miniatures are more like dolls. And, the therapy was much more like fantasy and art. Mark Hogancamp was attacked in the parking lot of a bar by five guys he'd been drinking with. Head injuries forced him to learn to speak, write, walk and completely function, all over again. Before the accident, he was married, an alcoholic and a gifted artist. After the accident, he was a completely different person, because he had no memory of his previous life. Working with his figures, he's able to practice small motor function, develop his rich imagination and role play some of his anger and aggression. Because he couldn't draw anymore, he captured scenes on film, with his camera. Now, friends and admirers of his work are urging him to share his town, Marwencol, with the world, with a gallery showing, a book and this film. Mark Hogancamp is a sympathetic and interesting guy. Marwencol is definitely an interesting place. Just when you think, "Okay, I get it, but this is weird," it gets weirder! But then, the pieces start to fit together. Fascinating story, well told, amazing imagery. It's an unforgettable place. Marwencol gets a 10 out of 10.

thefilmsmith.com

Fictions play a foundational role in our society. We encounter many of these fictions as images that feel bigger than we are, juggernauts projected onto the world we inhabit: social constructions of monetary value or race, or images on television considered synonymous with reality. In Marwencol we see the process from the other end as we follow a man who chooses and controls his fictions, projecting his real-life traumas onto a 1/6 scale world as alternative therapy.

On April 8, 2000 Mark Hogancamp had his memories literally beaten out of his head by five guys outside a New York bar; the film follows his life in the aftermath of the attack. After being kicked out of the hospital (he can't afford to stay), Mark seeks out an artistic outlet to continue his therapy. The nerve damage from the attack makes his hands too shaky to continue drawing, so the local hobby shop turns him to miniatures. Mark quickly becomes absorbed in his new hobby and creates a whole town called Marwencol, populated by World War II figurines. Painting minute details helps steady his hands, and the scenarios he creates between the dolls exorcise vengeful thoughts and allay loneliness. When Mark's photographs of Marwencol catches the eye of an art publication, an upcoming gallery exhibition of these photos becomes his newest challenge.

Mark's confessions about himself and his uses of Marwencol make the film uncomfortably intimate, but with touches of disarming charm. You'll wince as he hugs a doll based on a girl he has a crush on, and be horrified at the violence his characters enact upon the SS soldiers who torture his personal wax avatar (a stand-in for the attack he experienced). Mark blithely confesses to enjoying the power of manipulation in Marwencol, but he's so childlike in his earnestness that it's hard to feel truly threatened. Contextualized by the physical and mental trauma of his attack (PTSD is quite evident), the film allows you to sympathize with Mark, not treat him like a sideshow freak.

Which is a strong credit to director Jeff Malmberg. For someone so shy, Mark opens up without reserve to the audience; this seems evidence of his trust in the filmmaker, who spent four years shooting the documentary. It's obvious that Malmberg didn't shoot the film on 35mm, as Marwencol doesn't display the visual slickness of major studio films, but the DVCam look fits with the film's personal narrative and allows Mark's quality photographs to truly pop.

And let us not forget about Mark's world. Marwencol is amazingly detailed, to the point that at times I didn't know if I was seeing a shot of a bar in real life or the one in Marwencol – "Hogancamp's Ruined Stocking Catfight Club " (don't worry, all the catfights are staged). Given Mark's attention to detail and his skills as a photographer, it's no wonder art galleries come calling. Though Mark verbally details dealing with the beating, it's through his images of Marwencol that we get a visual understanding of his loneliness and anger.

The film does seem to throw a curve ball in the last half hour to drag out its runtime, but the film is enthralling, if for nothing else the continuous discovery of Marwencol and its story lines. Despite Mark's position as a strange, but nice guy almost beaten to death in 2000, he's not a victim – and that might the film's greatest triumph.

Fascinating, captivating, funny, you've got to see this.

-Remington Smith PS This American Life (the TV show) did a segment a while back that featured Mark and Marwencol. Since Marwencol is in limited release, you can check out that episode of This American Life on Netflix instant streaming (Season 2, Episode 3, "Going Down in History").

As with all the very best documentaries, it's what is implied rather than what is said outright. This brilliantly restrained piece chooses to give subtle information at all the right times, perfectly conveying the emotion attached to its subject matter.

Previous alcoholic, bitter and angry, Mark Hogancamp was left in a coma after he received a savage beating outside a bar by five men. The resulting damage meant that he had also lost a lot of memory from the attack, losing details in his life (including his need for alcohol). Having lost his identity, Mark dealt with his traumas by constructing the titular miniature town of Marwencol, often reenacting scenes from flashes of memory, with toy dolls closely representing people in his life.

Brilliantly paced, we learn of Mark's life, anxieties, and fears, and learn of a lonely, highly intelligent individual, who just does not want any further pain in his life. Thus, retracting from life and society, to live through his doll-town stories.

If the first half is a little labouring in providing information to the viewer, the second half justifies this approach no end, as we compassionately learn of Mark's personality, what makes him comfortable, and the few real loves throughout his life. As well as the reason for the attack that so affected his life.

The film is never judgmental, never dwells on its issues more than others. Scenes of Mark walking a toy jeep 160 miles on his trips to the local stores in order to wear the wheels in and appear authentic, prove to be highly endearing rather than seem odd or snigger-inducing. When Mark's constructions are later discovered as works of art, he struggles with his preparation for a New York exhibition of his constructions and photography. Yet clearly his honesty and integrity have a strong effect on the people he encounters there. What we are left with in the end is an honest portrait of a man overcoming his life's traumas. Therapy through art, in the most dignified and humble of ways.