Marwencol

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.

Marwencol is an excellent documentary which tells the story of Mark Hogancamp, who was assaulted by five men outside of a bar and left severely brain damaged after nine days in a coma. He had no memory of his former life.

As a form of therapy, Mark slowly builds a 1/6 scale Belgian World War II era town he names after real people; Mark, Wendy and Colleen. He uses dolls to represent himself and his friends and gives them story lines. He eventually photographs his work and after publication in a magazine, his work is discovered by a New York art gallery; this is a simply amazing story.

Mark has somehow survived against all odds and Marwencol will almost restore your faith in humanity.

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.

Marwencol is a documentary about Mark Hogancamp, who is a man in his late 30's and one night at a bar he was ganged up on and brutally beaten by a group of people. Mark survived, but was brain damaged and had to learn his motor skills, speech and everything else that he once knew, all over again. Instead of going to expensive therapy sessions, or psychiatry to get over the incident, Mark creates his own therapy and uses his creative outlet by building a model town circa World War 2 in his backyard with old scrap pieces and dolls and other material he buys at the local hobby shop. The film explores Mark's past and what he can remember about it before the accident and also shows how much this miniature town means to him and that this is probably the healthiest and best way for him to cope and get over the traumatic events that he experienced. I really enjoy when a documentary filmmaker does a film about everyday issues such as politics, the environment, or social causes that need light to be shed upon them to make a difference in the world. I also really appreciate when a documentary filmmaker makes a film like Marwencol, and instead of being really high tech, or using a lot of jargonised language and statistics, it instead invites us into the world of it's subject and in a sense, lets us the viewer get up close and personal with them. Marwencol, does not look like it was an expensive film to make and it does not have the fancy camera tricks, or stunts as say a Michael Moore documentary, but it is just as fascinating and affective as any other documentary on the market. The thing about this film is how we really start to like and care about Mark, as an individual and we also really respect and are fascinated by his World War 2 model town. Seeing him taking pictures of it, building onto it and all the precise and accurate measures he goes to, to make it all perfect is fascinating to watch and also at the same time warms our hearts because we see how much this means to him and how important it is for his creative outlet as well as his way of letting go of all his anger and fears that were brought on because of the attack. We see Mark, as he tries to interact with others and naturally he is very cautious and a little afraid to do so now for obvious reasons, but the way he connects with these people and incorporates them into his model village is really special. He may have some trouble interacting with the real version of the doll's inspirations, but when he talks to the dolls resembled after his friends and co-workers, he has a bond with them and he respects them and even in a way loves them in the same way as human beings we would love each other. The artistic aspect of Mark's town is also here. Everything is so detailed and well done that this film is interesting to look at in an artistic way as well. Also to look at Mark's imagination and how he sets up the characters in the town and involves them in story lines and plots that he will remember for weeks, or months after they happen, is nothing short of phenomenal. In a sense we do feel bad for Mark because of the accident and what he had to go through, but in another way we also see how the accident may have saved his life from the destructive behaviour and alcohol dependency he was so relying on before and through this village he has created, it has helped him in so many ways to reach out in a sense to others and himself. It was almost like he was given a second chance at life and I think he feels that way himself and he is going to make the most of it. Marwencol is so fascinating because we like Mark, care and want the best for him as do we for his town as well. Seeing him interact with it and how by doing this he is really helping himself and at the same time opening up a whole new world of opportunities for him. In a sense this is a feel good film because we see the progress that he is making and it would be interesting to see a follow up film several years down the road to further see what he is up to because I know he is going to get better and stronger with time and his art is going to be more and more appreciated. This film works because it is so human and believable and really concerns you and makes you want to cheer for what you have just seen.