marwencol

so I have just seen the best film last night. It was a documentary called marwencol and it was so moving.

This is what it says on Mark's website

Marwencol is a fantasy world created by Mark Hogancamp. This website is dedicated to capturing the beauty of Mark's secret world.

After being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar, Mark built a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard. Mark populated the town he dubbed "Marwencol" with dolls representing his friends and family and created life-like photographs detailing the town's many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helped Mark to recover his hand-eye coordination and deal with the psychic wounds from the attack. Through his homemade therapy, Mark was able to begin the long journey back into the "real world", both physically and emotionally - something he continues to struggle with today.

The parts of the town I loved was the bar he has created in the town called the ruined stocking where the women of the town stage cat fights and the fact that he is a character in his own world and can work through stuff within that world. In the last half of the film you come to realize that he was beaten up because the guys at the bar found out he was a cross dresser and now he accepts that about himself and even had his character try on stockings in marwencol. That kind of liberation through a fantasy world really moves me and there is a scene where he is putting the female dolls to sleep beside his bed and he says he loves them.

The film was essentially a grown man playing with dolls but in such a genuine way, with no sense of irony and he was able to recreate parts of his life through play and save himself. It is tragic and beautiful all at once.

 

In a really corny way it reminded me of that bit in Buffy....

Spike: 'Uh ... I do remember what I said. The promise. To protect her. (pause) If I had done that ... even if I didn't make it ... you wouldn't have had to jump. But I want you to know I did save you. Not when it counted, of course, but ... after that. Every night after that. I'd see it all again ... do something different. Faster or more clever, you know? Dozens of times, lots of different ways ... (softly) Every night I save you.' (after life season 6)