''Marwencol'' (also known as ''Village of the Dolls'' in the UK) is a 2010 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

that explores the life and work of artist and photographer Mark Hogancamp. It is the debut feature of director Jeff Malmberg. It was the inspiration for '' Welcome to Marwen'', a 2018 drama directed by

Robert Zemeckis Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy ''Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy ''Back to the Future'' film tr ...

Synopsis

On April 8, 2000, Mark Hogancamp was attacked outside of a bar by five men who beat him nearly to death after he drunkenly told them he was a cross-dresser. After nine days in a coma and 40 days in the hospital, Hogancamp was discharged with brain damage that left him little memory of his previous life. Unable to afford therapy, he creates his own by building a 1/6-scale

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

–era Belgian town in his yard and populating it with dolls representing himself, his friends, and even his attackers. He calls that town Marwencol, blending the names Mark, Wendy, and Colleen. Hogancamp was initially discovered by photographer David Naugle, who documented and shared his story with ''Esopus'' magazine.

Production

The film was shot in

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

between 2006 and 2010, using a combination of

DVCAM DV refers to a family of codecs and tape formats used for storing digital video, launched in 1995 by a consortium of video camera manufacturers led by Sony and Panasonic. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, DV was strongly associated with the ...

video and

Super-8 Super 8 mm film is a motion-picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement over the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format. The film is nominally 8 mm wide, the same as older formatted 8& ...

film formats.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Inspiring and fascinating, ''Marwencol'' depicts its subject with heartfelt tenderness, raising poignant questions about art and personal tragedy along the way." The site awarded the film its Golden Tomato Award for the best-reviewed documentary of the year. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' called the film "an exhilarating, utterly unique experience", while the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...

'' said that it's "exactly the sort of mysterious and almost holy experience you hope to get from documentaries and rarely do." The film was in the year-end top-10 lists of the ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'',

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

, ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

'' magazine, ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'',

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

, and many others. The film was included in ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

s July 6, 2012, article "50 Best Movies You've Never Seen". In the 2012

article and online poll, "The Golden Age of Documentaries: What's the Best Doc of the Last 5 Years?", ''Marwencol'' was ranked No. 1 in the poll. In the 2012

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

/ POV online poll, "The 100 Greatest Documentaries of All Time", ''Marwencol'' was ranked No. 91 in the poll. In the April 22, 2013, ''

'' article, "How Documentary Became the Most Exciting Kind of Filmmaking", ''Marwencol'' was among the films in the accompanying list, "The 20 Essential Documentaries of the Century". In September 2016, Cinema Eye Honors named ''Marwencol'' as one of the 20 top nonfiction films of the past decade, based on a poll of 110 key figures in the documentary community. In October 2019 Paste Magazine included ''Marwencol'' in their article, "The 30 Best Documentaries of the 2010s". The film was listed as #23.

In popular culture

In 2013,

began work on a dramatization of the story for

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

based on a script by Caroline Thompson. '' Welcome to Marwen'' was released in December 2018, starring Steve Carell as Hogancamp. The ninth episode of the second season of Fox sitcom '' Raising Hope'' ("The Men of New Natesville") is an homage to the film. The

Spike Jonze Adam H. Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television. Jonze began his ca ...

–directed music video for the

Beastie Boys Beastie Boys were an American rap rock group from New York City, formed in 1978. The group was composed of Mike D, Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam Yauch, Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Ad-Rock, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (voca ...

song "

Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win" is a song by American rap rock group Beastie Boys, from their eighth studio album ''Hot Sauce Committee Part Two''. Featuring American singer Santigold, the song was released as the fourth and final single ...

" was inspired by the film and Hogancamp's world. The Russian musical group The Saint Petersburg Disco Spin Club released a track in 2011 called "Marwencol". The American punk rock group Tough Broad released the 2012 song "Marwencol."

Accolades

Independent Spirit Awards The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with Poly(methyl m ...

** Find Your Audience Award"2011 FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARD FILMMAKER GRANT WINNERS ANNOUNCED" Film Independent ** Truer Than Fiction Award ** Best Documentary (nominated) * Boston Society of Film Critics ** Best Documentary ** Best New Filmmaker * Toronto Film Critics Association ** Best Documentary (nominated) * Detroit Film Critics Society ** Best Documentary (nominated) * Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association ** Best Documentary (nominated) *

International Documentary Association International Documentary Association (IDA), founded in 1982, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that promotes nonfiction filmmakers, and is dedicated to increasing public awareness for the documentary genre. Their major program areas are: Advocacy, Filmm ...

**Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award * Cinema Eye Honors **Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film **Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking (nominated) **Outstanding Achievement in Direction (nominated) **Outstanding Achievement in Editing (nominated) *

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

**Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Film * Comic-Con Film Festival ** Best Documentary "Congratulations to the 2010 CCI:IFF Winners" ** Judges' Choice Award for Best Overall Film * Seattle International Film Festival ** Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Film *

Hot Docs The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June ...

**HBO Emerging Artist Award * Silverdocs ** Cinematic Vision Award *

Vienna International Film Festival The Vienna International Film Festival, or Viennale, is a film festival taking place every October since 1960 in Vienna, Austria. The average number of visitors is about 75,000. Traditional cinema venues are ''Gartenbaukino'', ''Urania'', ''Metro ...

** Audience Award for Best FIlm *

Woodstock Film Festival The Woodstock Film Festival is an American film festival that was launched in 2000 by filmmakers Meira Blaustein and Laurent Rejto with the goal to bring high quality independent film to the Hudson Valley region. The festival takes place each fa ...

**Best Documentary Feature * Whistler Film Festival ** Best Documentary * Cleveland International Film Festival ** Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Film *

Independent Film Festival of Boston The Independent Film Festival Boston is a not for profit film festival in Boston, Massachusetts. History The Independent Film Festival Boston (also known as IFFBoston or IFFB) was created in 2003 by the non-profit organization the Independent ...

** Special Jury Award for Best Documentary Film *

Fantasia Festival Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

** Best Documentary *

Belfast Film Festival The Belfast Film Festival is Northern Ireland's largest film festival, attracting over 25,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1995, the festival has grown to include the Docs Ireland international documentary festival, as well as an Audi ...

** Maysles Brothers Award - Best Documentary * Docville ** Best International Documentary — Docville (Belgium)

References

External links

* * *
''Marwencol''
at

Independent Lens ''Independent Lens'' is a weekly television series airing on PBS featuring documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of ''Independent Lens'' were hosted by Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence Ho ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marwencol (film) 2010 films 2010 documentary films Action figures American documentary films American independent films American victims of crime Documentary films about cross-dressing Documentary films about mental health Documentary films about New York (state) Documentary films about people with disability Documentary films about photographers 2010s English-language films Films about dolls Films set in New York (state) Films shot in New York (state) Kingston, New York Works about outsider art 2010 directorial debut films 2010 LGBT-related films Cross-dressing in American films Films directed by Jeff Malmberg 2010s American films