Marwencol

Mark Hogancamp in front of one of his photographs of Marwencol.
Photo by Tom Putnam. Courtesy of The Cinema Guild.

If I tell people who I am and what I'm about, I'm true with myself. That means I'm not lying to myself. What they do with that...I'm not accountable for the feelings or how they perceive it, make faces and stuff. That's when I close in and discover who I am, and that's all part of finding out who I am...a part of the new life, second life I was given. —Mark Hogancamp, from the film

A medic rescues a wounded major after an ambush by the SS.
Photo by Mark E. Hogancamp. Courtesy of The Cinema Guild.

It happened in the year 2000. After a vicious attack by five teenagers, Mark Hogancamp woke up from a nine-day coma. He didn't know who he was. He couldn't walk. He couldn't eat. Life was beginning anew.

Once home, he found journals he'd written before he was attacked and decided to learn about the man that he had been. He was disturbed by the mind of his former self. It appeared that this prior man had operated in a crazed alcoholic state.

Also disturbing was to see that his former self was talented at drawing, but all the new man had left of that skill was an unsteady hand. "My mind and my hand aren't connected anymore." [Source: Esopus Magazine]“My mind and my hand aren't connected anymore.”

Having a need for therapy, and no funds to pay for it, Mark decided to work on his cognitive and physical skills on his own. He soon found that his creative brain, although he could no longer draw well, was still in there trying to come out.

He kept reaching for it, and it gave him a gift — the gift to build a small-scale town and to "people" it with stories.

Each character in Marwencol is a person Mark knows personally. His mother, his coworker at his part-time job, his best friend... All represented by dolls. And not your GI Joe dolls but Dragon Models Limited (DMI), as he tells us in his Esopus interview.

Mark manipulates Marwencol's dolls into the postures needed in order to tell his stories. He photographs the posed dolls. The images are captivating and lifelike.

We see great art in Marwencol because it makes us feel. Mark's reward is having control of a world whose real-life counterpart holds little for him in the way of feeling safe and accepted. It's a world as he needs it to be. Sadly, he may always have the fear that comes after one has been so violently traumatized.

It's a fascinating documentary; highly recommended for those wanting to be inspired by a man trying to live again in a scary world.