Caught Marwencol the other night, a film I've been excited about since finding the trailer online a while back. It didn't make it this far out in the hinterlands on the big screen, so thank god for Netflix Streaming.
It's one of those documentaries that carries the danger of exploiting its subject like a Flying Fortress laboring along with a full playload of bombs. The protagonist, Mark Hogancamp, went from footloose alcoholic to brain-damaged disability case after being savagely beaten by 5 men outside a bar.
Fortunately the film navigates this minefield as carefully as Hogancamp himself follows the white lines on the side of the road during his long walks, pulling a small jeep full of military figures behind him.
A long rehabilitation followed the tragedy outside the bar, and this being America funds for physical and mental therapy run out long before Hogancamp's need for them. Left to address continuing trauma with nothing but his own resources, he developed and built a parallel universe in his backyard, populated with figures from a local hobby shop- Marewencol, a Belgian town forever beset by the Second World War, and the canvas upon which Hogancamp spins the tales of his recovery.
An obvious comparison is Henry Darger, only minus the creepy pedophile aspect and the posthumous discovery bit. A photographer who noticed Hogancamp pulling his jeep along the road every day eventually buttonholed him, checked out his work and forwarded it to a magazine, which eventually led to an art show in Greenwitch Village. But I like this doc quite a bit more than In the Realms of the Unreal. Hogancamp is damaged, but far from a recluse and his art is more interested in finding a way to engage our 'real' world than spiraling further out on its own fantastic tangent.
It should speak to anyone who's ever tried to tell a story, or used art to confront and attempt to communicate with their personal demons.
There is one down side to the streaming edition- no extras. As the final credits rolled my thumb twitched for the 'menu' button, eager for special features. I'll probably end up adding it to my actual, physical DVD queue just for the deleted scenes and stuff.
A+, an engaging, entertaining and thought provoking way to spend a few hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment