Last night as we started watching Marwencol, the documentary about Mark Hogancamp and his doll village whose name is a portmanteau of Mark, Wendy, and Colleen, Mr Z turned to me and said, "This is what Mark Chapman did before he shot John Lennon, but his dolls turned their backs on him." (I couldn't find anything about this online, but I'll track it down.)
I scanned other reviews of Marwencol for mentions of what struck me particularly hard about this documentary. The reviews talk about Marwencol being "affecting" and a story of "loss" and "coping" through art. I don't disagree with that, but there was little mention (maybe I'm being generous to the filmmaker here) of what I found to be particularly shocking. It wasn't just that Mark Hogancamp was play acting the events that led to his losing 38 years of his memories, the entire contents of a life, but how his fantasy world was taking over. The real world, the one he had no choice but to live in, was slipping further and further away.
Colleen is addressed as Mark's first love. We see how much care and attention he pays to what he calls Colleen's doll, her alter-ego has just had her hair done. Colleen herself points out Mark's attention to detail. The sparkles in the doll's top coordinate with the sparkles in the doll's pants. Her husband warns her to be careful in light of Mark's obsession of her. A little while later, as Mark tells Colleen how their dolls are engaged and how the wedding plans have been made, she reminds him that they are just dolls. His reaction is to have another one of Marwencol's residents, Deja Thoris, the Belgian witch of Marwencol poof Colleen's doll out of existence.
Later it is revealed that Mark returned from his nine day coma and consequent 40 day hospital stay to find a closet full of ladies shoes and boots. He asks his roommate who they belong to. "They're yours," his roommate Tim tells him. Tim has his own doll in Marwencol, a well-deserved one since he helped Mark after his hospital stay when the hospital threw him out and there was no more access to therapy treatments to help him reacquire all that he had lost in the senseless attack.
Nothing is said about the shoes until much later, when Mark is told he admitted to his attackers that he was a cross dresser. You start to understand Hogancamp better now. You see he was a victim of a hate crime, and the rules of his make believe town starts to make sense. "Everybody has to get along," Hogancamp says.
Captain Hogie, Hogancamp's alter-ego marries a Russian soldier named Anna after Anna proves her love for him by rescuing him from the hands of the S.S., the dolls that represent Mark's real-life attackers. It is a bloody fight, and it is not the last documented during the film. As Mark is propelled to artist status, his pictures are shown in a magazine and a gallery show is arranged in New York City, where Mark feels free to don a pair of high heels and seamed stockings in public. Before leaving for the big city, back in Marwencol Anna and the other dolls help Captain Hogie put on a pair of stockings. Here Hogancamp finds the acceptance he did not find in his real life.
Before the attack Hogancamp's drunken journals are full of impressive sketches, a gift that is ripped cruelly from him when his skull is caved in. He does not remember the taste of alcohol or the need to consume it. The snapshots of Marwencol are beautiful. It is obvious that Hogancamp has an artist's eye, and while he can longer "draw anything he wanted", he has taken thousands of pictures.
I feel drawn to him when I see him snap away with his Pentax K1000 with its broken light meter. I had one myself when I was a teenager, the light meter was also broken, but I never had Hogancamp's style or ability or patience. I watch him use tweezers to tighten a knot for a tiny scarf. His dexterity is amazing, but his clumsiness in the rest of his life is hard to watch.
He wants to be loved. He wants to find his real life Anna, someone to play in Marwencol with him. Someone who will accept him as he is and he knows he is more broken than any of his well-tended dolls.
The opening shot of the documentary called to mind the work of Henry Darger, and the world inhabited by his Vivian girls, but whereas Darger's work is inhabited by young naked girls collaged from newspapers he gathered from the trash and magazines (which have led to some claiming Darger might have been a pedophile), Hogancamp's world is inhabited by women. He loves women. He loves their shoes and makes them the heroines of his fantasy world, but he accepts that he will probably never find his Anna.
The editor of the magazine that first published Mark's work talks about setting up a disability trust for him, but beyond the mention that Mark was cut off from public assistance for his therapy, not a word is said about finding more help for him. Hogancamp has already been stolen in bits and pieces, his fantasy world invaded by forces just as deadly as the S.S. by those who will not respect the rules of Marwencol. At the gallery showing there are negative comments and the typical art world bullshit - best depicted by two New Yorkers who stand behind Hogancamp and snigger as he speaks on camera about how he wishes he'd worn heels to his opening because he feels safer in them.
When the gallery show is over Mark returns to Marwencol. He is wearing wide legged capri pant jeans with stockings, his feet shoved into black mules studded with rivets. Captain Hogie is posed until Anna is in his arms, and they kiss.
Mr Z calls Hogancamp's story a tragedy and despite what the reviews say, I agree if only because despite what Mark has found for himself, he knows too well what he's lost.
If you'd like to see more of Marwencol, or to donate or purchase Hogancamp's work, you can do so through the official website or Tumblr.
I scanned other reviews of Marwencol for mentions of what struck me particularly hard about this documentary. The reviews talk about Marwencol being "affecting" and a story of "loss" and "coping" through art. I don't disagree with that, but there was little mention (maybe I'm being generous to the filmmaker here) of what I found to be particularly shocking. It wasn't just that Mark Hogancamp was play acting the events that led to his losing 38 years of his memories, the entire contents of a life, but how his fantasy world was taking over. The real world, the one he had no choice but to live in, was slipping further and further away.
 |
| Mark shows what he did to the VCR that ate one of his best porn tapes. |
Colleen is addressed as Mark's first love. We see how much care and attention he pays to what he calls Colleen's doll, her alter-ego has just had her hair done. Colleen herself points out Mark's attention to detail. The sparkles in the doll's top coordinate with the sparkles in the doll's pants. Her husband warns her to be careful in light of Mark's obsession of her. A little while later, as Mark tells Colleen how their dolls are engaged and how the wedding plans have been made, she reminds him that they are just dolls. His reaction is to have another one of Marwencol's residents, Deja Thoris, the Belgian witch of Marwencol poof Colleen's doll out of existence.
 |
| Deja Thoris, the Belgian witch of Marwencol |
Later it is revealed that Mark returned from his nine day coma and consequent 40 day hospital stay to find a closet full of ladies shoes and boots. He asks his roommate who they belong to. "They're yours," his roommate Tim tells him. Tim has his own doll in Marwencol, a well-deserved one since he helped Mark after his hospital stay when the hospital threw him out and there was no more access to therapy treatments to help him reacquire all that he had lost in the senseless attack.
Nothing is said about the shoes until much later, when Mark is told he admitted to his attackers that he was a cross dresser. You start to understand Hogancamp better now. You see he was a victim of a hate crime, and the rules of his make believe town starts to make sense. "Everybody has to get along," Hogancamp says.
Captain Hogie, Hogancamp's alter-ego marries a Russian soldier named Anna after Anna proves her love for him by rescuing him from the hands of the S.S., the dolls that represent Mark's real-life attackers. It is a bloody fight, and it is not the last documented during the film. As Mark is propelled to artist status, his pictures are shown in a magazine and a gallery show is arranged in New York City, where Mark feels free to don a pair of high heels and seamed stockings in public. Before leaving for the big city, back in Marwencol Anna and the other dolls help Captain Hogie put on a pair of stockings. Here Hogancamp finds the acceptance he did not find in his real life.
 |
| Anna and two other girls storm the church in Marwencol where Captain Hogie is being held by the S.S. |
Before the attack Hogancamp's drunken journals are full of impressive sketches, a gift that is ripped cruelly from him when his skull is caved in. He does not remember the taste of alcohol or the need to consume it. The snapshots of Marwencol are beautiful. It is obvious that Hogancamp has an artist's eye, and while he can longer "draw anything he wanted", he has taken thousands of pictures.
I feel drawn to him when I see him snap away with his Pentax K1000 with its broken light meter. I had one myself when I was a teenager, the light meter was also broken, but I never had Hogancamp's style or ability or patience. I watch him use tweezers to tighten a knot for a tiny scarf. His dexterity is amazing, but his clumsiness in the rest of his life is hard to watch.
He wants to be loved. He wants to find his real life Anna, someone to play in Marwencol with him. Someone who will accept him as he is and he knows he is more broken than any of his well-tended dolls.
The opening shot of the documentary called to mind the work of Henry Darger, and the world inhabited by his Vivian girls, but whereas Darger's work is inhabited by young naked girls collaged from newspapers he gathered from the trash and magazines (which have led to some claiming Darger might have been a pedophile), Hogancamp's world is inhabited by women. He loves women. He loves their shoes and makes them the heroines of his fantasy world, but he accepts that he will probably never find his Anna.
The editor of the magazine that first published Mark's work talks about setting up a disability trust for him, but beyond the mention that Mark was cut off from public assistance for his therapy, not a word is said about finding more help for him. Hogancamp has already been stolen in bits and pieces, his fantasy world invaded by forces just as deadly as the S.S. by those who will not respect the rules of Marwencol. At the gallery showing there are negative comments and the typical art world bullshit - best depicted by two New Yorkers who stand behind Hogancamp and snigger as he speaks on camera about how he wishes he'd worn heels to his opening because he feels safer in them.
When the gallery show is over Mark returns to Marwencol. He is wearing wide legged capri pant jeans with stockings, his feet shoved into black mules studded with rivets. Captain Hogie is posed until Anna is in his arms, and they kiss.
Mr Z calls Hogancamp's story a tragedy and despite what the reviews say, I agree if only because despite what Mark has found for himself, he knows too well what he's lost.
If you'd like to see more of Marwencol, or to donate or purchase Hogancamp's work, you can do so through the official website or Tumblr.
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