SXSW Review: Marwencol

If you thought it was silly and childish of us at Slackerwood to present our SXSW guides through the eyes of Film Fest Geek Barbie, wait until you see Marwencol, a film about an entire miniature city populated with Barbie-sized men and women, and its creator. The film won the Best Documentary Feature award at SXSW and it is easy to understand why -- while there were many good docs at the fest this year, this one is so very different and so compelling that it stands out in sharp contrast. I feel like I'm still under the film's spell, but I don't want to tell you too much about it and spoil the discovery process.

Marwencol is about Mark Hogancamp, whose life changed the night that five guys followed him out of a bar and beat him so badly he suffered brain damage. At age 38, he had to learn to walk again, and write, and so forth. His personality changed -- he was no longer an alcoholic, but could not sketch illustrations in the way he used to. Discharged from the hospital before he was better due to his insurance running out, Mark tried to find self-therapy for his imagination and fine motor skills. He created an entire little world in his Kingston, New York backyard -- the fictitious WWII-era town of Marwencol in Belgium -- and populated it both with alter egos from his real life, including himself, and fictitious characters.

I knew most of that background info before seeing the documentary, but it still didn't quite prepare me for Mark's story. He involves himself in Marwencol and his characters in a very intense way. When he walks to the grocery store, he drags a small Jeep with him, with a few of the dolls in it who represent his characters. This is ostensibly to wear out the Jeep wheels so they don't look too new and shiny, but as the film progresses, we understand that's not the only reason. When someone in his life acts in a way he doesn't like, the one "magical" character in his land banishes them from Marwencol forever.

Mark takes photos of the scenarios he enacts in Marwencol that are detailed, beautifully lit, and seem to be about a millimeter away from real life. But he's not doing it for the art possibilities -- this is truly is therapy and comfort on many levels. I confess I "played" with my childhood dollhouse until I was well into high school, imagining stories and scenarios for the dolls as though they were characters. I can see the appeal of an entire town like that. Marwencol is not your childhood dollhouse, though -- many of the characters are military men and women, and sometimes the action gets downright gory.

Marwencol is divided into sections, generally chronological, focusing on various aspects of Mark's life and the effects that his imaginary town has on his real life ... and vice versa. I don't want to share too many of the revelations. I especially enjoyed the sections in which Mark tells us stories about the characters, which we can see through the still photos he's taken that depict those stories. While many portions of his town are made from model kits, I loved the time machine vehicle he invented for the town's witch character ... made from an old VCR.

Mark's life, with its strong ties to an imaginary world, was one I could sympathize with even though it is very different from my own. Filmmaker Jeff Malmberg does an excellent job of presenting Mark and Marwencol in a respectful way, when it would have been so easy to slide into irony or mockery. I don't know when you or I will have the chance to see Marwencol again, but if you do get the opportunity, grab it. In the meantime, you can see some of Mark's amazing photos on the Marwencol website.