AcesandEights
13-May-2011, 02:00 PM
I had missed the post (http://forum.homepageofthedead.com/showthread.php?18024-Marwencol-New-Documentary) BillyRay had done about this, but...
On April 8, 2000, Mark Hogancamp was attacked outside of a bar by five men who nearly beat him to death. After nine days in a coma and forty days in the hospital, Mark was discharged with brain damage that left him little memory of his previous life.
Unable to afford therapy, Mark creates his own by building a 1/6-scale World War II-era town in his yard and populating it with dolls representing himself, his friends, and even his attackers. He rehabilitates his physical wounds by manipulating the small dolls and props — and his mental ones by having the figures act out various battles and stories.
When Mark begins documenting his miniature dramas with his camera, his photos are discovered and published by Esopus magazine and even shown in a New York art gallery. But having the label of "art" applied to his intensely personal work forces Mark to make a choice between the safety of his fictional town and the real world he's avoided since his attack.
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/11/12/marwencol_rev_72dpi.jpg
http://redtreetimes.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/marwencol_01.jpg
Probably the most honest and personal piece of media I've come across the last few years. And, in a year of great docu viewing, one of my favs. It, in fact, stands out because it's so damned human. I can't recommend it enough, streaming on Netflix now.
On April 8, 2000, Mark Hogancamp was attacked outside of a bar by five men who nearly beat him to death. After nine days in a coma and forty days in the hospital, Mark was discharged with brain damage that left him little memory of his previous life.
Unable to afford therapy, Mark creates his own by building a 1/6-scale World War II-era town in his yard and populating it with dolls representing himself, his friends, and even his attackers. He rehabilitates his physical wounds by manipulating the small dolls and props — and his mental ones by having the figures act out various battles and stories.
When Mark begins documenting his miniature dramas with his camera, his photos are discovered and published by Esopus magazine and even shown in a New York art gallery. But having the label of "art" applied to his intensely personal work forces Mark to make a choice between the safety of his fictional town and the real world he's avoided since his attack.
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/11/12/marwencol_rev_72dpi.jpg
http://redtreetimes.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/marwencol_01.jpg
Probably the most honest and personal piece of media I've come across the last few years. And, in a year of great docu viewing, one of my favs. It, in fact, stands out because it's so damned human. I can't recommend it enough, streaming on Netflix now.