Marwencol

Colour, HD CAM
USA, 2010, 84 min
EP – European premiere
Section: Documentary Films in Competition

Synopsis

On April 8, 2000, Mark Hogancamp staggered out of a bar in Kingston, New York and was nearly beaten to death under ambiguous circumstances by five men. After nine days in a coma, his condition began to improve, but he was left with permanent memory loss and brain damage. Unable to afford expensive treatment, he set about creating his own remedy. He built Marwencol in his backyard, a 1/6 scale Belgian village from the period of the Second World War. He inhabited the little town with rigorously executed figures representing his friends, his loved ones, and his alter ego in the form of an intrepid American army captain. When he began to photograph the figures – the bearers of his emotions, hopes, fears, and fragments of his memory – in incredibly detailed compositions, his unique home therapy suddenly became art. Debut American documentarist Jeff Malmberg spent four years with his camera in Hogancamp’s village, a place brimming with the dramatic events of late World War II.

About the director

Jeff Malmberg graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. In 2006 he produced and edited the documentary Red White Black & Blue (dir. Tom Putnam). The movie premiered at the festival in Locarno, and in 2007 it was bought for broadcast and video distribution by PBS (American public broadcasting). Malmberg also produced and edited the Fox Searchlab short Broadcast 23, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. As a film and television editor, Malmberg’s credits include the documentary series "American Gangster” and numerous programs for the History Channel. As a commercial editor he has cut over 100 spots for directors such as George Lucas and Errol Morris. His full-length debut Marwencol won Best Documentary Feature at this year’s SXSW festival.