Marwencol

"Exactly the sort of mysterious and almost holy experience you hope to get from documentaries and rarely do."—Village Voice

After being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar, Mark Hogancamp builds a 1/6th scale World War II–era town in his backyard. Hogancamp populates the town that he names "Marwencol" with dolls representing his friends and family and creates life-like photographs detailing the town’s many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helps him to recover his hand-eye coordination and deal with the psychic wounds of the attack. When Hogancamp's photographs are discovered by a New York gallery and deemed "art," he is forced to choose between the safety of his fantasy life in Marwencol and the real world he’s avoided since the attack. Marwencol has just been named the recipient of the "Truer than Fiction Award" in the Independent Spirit awards competition. (83 mins., video)