Playing with Dolls

Movies: Marwencol

Marwencol might be the most unique documentary I've ever seen. It follows Mark Hogancamp, a middle-aged man who is recovering from an extremely violent attack that took place about five years before this documentary was made. The night of the attack, Hogancamp left a bar and five teenagers who were harassing him followed him, jumped him, and beat him so severely he was in a coma for nine days. Hogancamp lost many of his motor skills and had to relearn how to walk, eat, etc. He also lost many of his memories--including the fact that he used to be a severe alcoholic (after the attack, Mark had no interest in booze).

In the aftermath of the attack, Mark found that since he had limited health coverage and couldn't attend therapy indefinitely, he had to create his own therapies. Before the beating, he was a very skilled artist, but afterward his hands shook too much to draw. Still drawn to art in general, Mark began to collect GI Joes, Barbies, and other dolls and create an alternate world--a Belgian town called "Marwencol"--in his own backyard. He came up with story lines, created very realistic scenes, and photographed them. Marwencol allowed Mark to process the anger and fear the attack left him with. In one story line, Mark's alter-ego, an America GI, is captured by Germans and tortured for information before the female dolls of the town rescue him. He points out that this story line allows him to relive the beating and even "get revenge" in a safe way.

One day, as Mark is taking one of his little jeeps for a walk (to create realistic wear and tear on the tires), he is discovered by a man who offers to do a show of his work in Greenwich Village. Mark, who never thought of himself as an artist, has to decide if he's ready to enter back into the wider community in order to attend the show.

What's fascinating about Marwencol is that it illustrates how our assumptions about people can be upended when we get to know them. To outsiders, Mark Hogancamp might come off as creepy: he flirts with a married neighbor, sleeps with Barbie dolls beside him, takes the dolls for "walks", etc. But when you hear his story, you realize that Mark is remarkably articulate and in-tune with who he is and what he needs in order to recover from his brutal attack. Mark is both a pitiful and an inspiring man. He complains about being lonely and not having a girlfriend for nine years--which is very sad because you completely understand his loneliness. Yet, he also points out that being able to do this kind of art is wonderful since it proves that his attackers didn't take away his imagination. Mark Hogancamp's story reminded me a lot of Harvey Pekar's story in American Splendor. Pekar, another strange, lonely man, also lived an inspiring life through his comic art. Pekar suffered through cancer and used comics as a way to transcend a very painful, scary experience. In the film, he (well, Paul Giamatti, playing him) says "Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff". Indeed, Mark Hogancamp lives a simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary life just as Pekar did.

I love that we get to see all sides of Mark Hogancamp in this film: his anger at the men who attacked him, his vulnerability and anxiety, his creativity, and his happiness in his work and art. I also liked that the film was inspiring, but not sappy or melodramatic. Mark Hogancamp shows how even someone with limited means can use art to find meaning in the absurd and often painful realities of life.

4 out of 5 stars






Mark's alter-ego