Marwencol (2010)
Netflix
Marwencol is a documentary film that is a close study of
the life and activities of one person, Mark Hogancamp. The film is an
exploration of a character who is rediscovering himself after a traumatic
experience. In this sense the film exists as part of a duality, it is exploring Hogancamps reality while also revealing the world he created. Hogancamp constructs
stories using toy figurines and this narrative interweaves with the narrative
of the documentary, often they are one and the same thing. Hogancamp has constructed a
fictional village populated with figurines that represent actual people and
phenomena in Hogancamps own life. The filmmaker foregrounds the characters of Hogancamps
fictional village (Marwencol) allowing us to see the village as he himself sees it, as a world in
itself. The foregrounding of the village of Marwencol gives it a persona,
a structure and a veracity.
The documentary Marwencol reflects the world
mark lives in while the village of Marwencol is a reflection of the world Hogancamp
inhabits. The documentary is in this sense a manifestation of a reflection of reality. Hogancamp himself mentions the “veracity” of the world he creates, although he knows it is
fictional but for escapist reasons he likes to believe it is reality.
Hogancamps creation of
Marwencol could be viewed as a reaction to his loss of control over his own life but this aspect is not explored explicitly within the film. The lines of
questioning seem to be about exposition, it is broadly about part of Hogancamps
journey rather than one aspect of it. The world he is creating is much like the direction
of an ongoing film, the narratives he creates are illustrated using photographs. Marwencols narratives interweave with the documentaries own narrative by
foregrounding the characters that inhabit Marwencol. Such a representation could
be said to be a reflection of how Hogancamp views the world. After having first been
brought into Hogancamps reality we are then brought further again into the world he has created. This
realism in conveying the world of figurines is again reinforced by framing; of
the documentary camera and also by Hogancamps own camera
The doll characters
of the village are used to signpost the chapters of the film, allowing them to
seemingly participate in the films production. This foregrounding of the
world Hogancamp created further reinforces the reality of its existence. The director of Marwencol seems
to be making a genuine attempt to honestly depict the subject of the film and
to honorably convey the reality of his existence. For example when Hogancamp is
recollecting his traumatic experience he firstly uses a very stylized form of
representation to convey the trauma. The experience is also represented
onscreen by Hogancamps alter ego in the world of Marwencol, something which Hogancamp did
to deal with the trauma. Marwencol is
guided by Hogancamps voice, it is his experiences that form its content. It is an
honest attempt to maintain fidelity to the world that is represented by viewing
it through the eyes of its primary subject.
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