Close

Marwencol

Wednesday, January 19, 2011 – 7:30pm
USA 2010. Director: Jeff Malmberg

“One of the oddest and most moving documentaries since Best Boy or
Grey Gardens . . . Marwencol is a marvel” (Liam Lacey,
Globe and Mail). In 2000, 38-year-old Mark Hogancamp was savagely
beaten by five men outside a Kingston, N.Y., bar. He emerged from a coma nine
days later unable to walk, talk or remember much of his previous life. When his
medical benefits ran out, Hogancamp was on his own. To heal both emotionally and
physically, he embarked his own unique therapy: constructing, in his backyard, a
1/6th scale model of a WWII-era Belgian town called Marwencol, and populating it
with more than 100 G.I. Joe and Barbie dolls. He also dreamed up complex
narratives for this mini-world, involving his alter ego, U.S. Air Force Captain
Mark “Hogie” Hogancamp, and various vamps, assassins, Allied and German
soldiers, friends and family. As these scenarios became more elaborate, Mark
started photographing them — stunningly realistic and evocative tableaux. Mark’s
“outsider art” caught the attention of the New York art world, forcing him to
choose between the safety of his fictional town and the real world he’s avoided
since his attack. Winner of Best Documentary honours at a number of festivals,
including SXSW, Seattle, Cleveland and Fantasia. Colour, HDCAM. 83 mins.

Post-screening discussion with Dr. Derryck Smith, a
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. Dr.
Smith is a past president of the B.C. Medical Association and the Medical Legal
Society. He treats children, teens and adults with Attention Deficit Disorder
and Traumatic Brain Injury. Dr. Smith is also a consultant in the Brain Injury
Program at LifeMark.

Moderated by Dr. Harry Karlinsky, Clinical Professor,
Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia.

Film Website and Trailer
www.marwencol.com