MARWENCOL (2010) (****)

On April 8, 2000, Mark Hogancamp was in a bar, which was a common occurrence for him at the time. He says the wrong thing to a group of young men. They follow him outside and beat him in the head savagely. When he comes out of a coma, he remembers nothing of his old life. So in an effort to make sense of the new world he has been thrust into, he creates his own world in his backyard using 1/6th scale World War II soldiers and Barbies.

The world, Marwencol, Hogancamp creates is detailed and elaborate. There is an on-going story where Hogancamp casts himself as a bar owner/soldier in a Belgian town. For the entertainment of the boys, the women stage fake cat fights. The Nazis are always looming around trying to ruin the fun. Hogancamp creates characters in Marwencol based on people from his real life. A married neighbor who he crushes on is his girlfriend in the world. He can't control the real world, but nothing happens in Marwencol that he doesn't control.

Before the attack, Hogancamp was married and an alcoholic. He doesn't remember being either. His physical recovery includes the disappearance of his desire to drink. In trying to find himself, he asks people what he was like before and he doesn't like the man he is told about. Without the desire to drink, he simply avoids it. Fascinatingly, he has another desire before his attack that still remains. It says a great deal about the things that really drive us.

As Hogancamp develops his Marwencol stories, he takes photos of his nuanced set-ups. He is obsessed with authenticity, so he dresses up in WWII fatigues and walks down the street pulling a toy Jeep behind him in order to properly wear the tires. On one of these missions, he is approached by a photographer who he shares his snapshots with. The photographer is floored and helps set him up with an art magazine that leads to an art show.

But how will he react to the real world judging what is therapy to him? He talks about Marwencol as if it were real. Some people at home have been creeped out by how they are featured in Marwencol and how he talks about it. How will the art snobs of Greenwich Village react to him? He expects everyone there to be wearing feather boas. How will they react to his other personal secrets? Will he be able to be himself or will it make him want to hide? The biggest tragedy would be that the experience might destroy Marwencol for him.

This brilliant documentary was made by Jeff Malmberg, who certainly paid his dues as an editor on such disasters as Paris Hilton's THE HOTTIE & THE NOTTIE. He does the right thing and simply lets Hogancamp tell his story. We sense that he really likes Hogancamp and means him no harm, because the fragile man is such a descent person. The care Malmberg puts into the film translates directly into how we see Hogancamp. His photographs of Marwencol are filled with such honest emotion that can't be faked. That is what makes them art. It's what makes what he is doing special.

His film would make a great double header with IN THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL: THE MYSTERY OF HENRY DARGER, a doc about a hermetic janitor who upon his death was discovered to be the author of a 15,000-page novel accompanied by bizarrely captivating paintings as big as 12 feet. Like Darger, Hogancamp does his art for himself. It is the way he makes sense of the world. Through his art, we get a glimpse of a human mind and soul. It's a moving experience.