I saw a great documentary film Marwencol, which is all about the healing power of one man's imagination and his desire to create something good after something very bad happened. Mark Hogancamp was beaten into a coma, losing much of his memory of his previous life. So he embarks on another life of his own making, filled with art, imagination, and connection.
He's created a 1/6th scale WWII Belgian village called Marwencol in his backyard. He painstakingly turns Barbie dolls and hobbyist figures into alter egos of himself and friends. By doing what pleases him and following the story, as he says, he's fashioned his own form of physical, emotional, mental, spiritual therapy. He sets up and photographs scenes of American GI's, SS men, a Belgian time traveling witch, and myriad cat-fighting women with fabulous outfits and guts enough to save his own alter ego's hide.
Story lines are funny, human, romantic, and yet often turn violent. Justice is always restored. By following his passions, to create and follow the story as it unfolds within him, he both creates and documents the ongoing life of Marwencol.
Check it out! Marwencol will be in theaters and on PBS in the next year.
