The first-ever Kingston Film Festival will present a special screening and awards ceremony this Saturday, September 8 featuring Marwencol and a Festival wrap-up. The film will be screened at 7 p.m., followed by a question-and-answer session and a special presentation from director Jeff Malmberg and star Mark Hogancamp.
Marwencol is a documentary about the fantasy world of Kingston-area artist Mark Hogancamp. After being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar, Hogancamp builds a one-sixth-scale World War II-era town in his backyard. He populates the town that he dubs Marwencol with dolls representing his friends and family and creates lifelike photographs detailing the town’s many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helps Hogancamp to recover his hand/eye coordination and deal with the psychic wounds of the attack.
When Hogancamp and his photographs are discovered, a prestigious New York gallery sets up an art show. Suddenly Hogancamp’s homemade therapy is deemed “art,” forcing him to choose between the safety of his fantasy life in Marwencol and the real world that he has avoided since the attack.
Marwencol was released theatrically by the Cinema Guild and aired on PBS. It has won more than 25 awards, including two Independent Spirit Awards, Best Documentary of the Year from the Boston Society of Film Critics and Rotten Tomatoes and the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary at the South by Southwest Film Festival. The Los Angeles Times calls the film “an exhilarating, utterly unique experience,” while the Village Voice says that it’s “exactly the sort of mysterious and almost holy experience you hope to get from documentaries and rarely do.”
For more information on the film, read Alm@nac’s feature on our website at www.ulsterpub.wpengine.com/2012/03/29/news-from-marwencol-follow-additions-to-mark-hogancamps-model-mythical-town.
Tickets for the screening of Marwencol this Saturday, September 8 at 7 p.m. and the Kingston Film Festival awards ceremony are available for $5 at BSP Lounge. Backstage Studio Productions (BSP) is located at 323 Wall Street in Uptown Kingston. For more information about BSP, e-mail info@bsplounge.com or call (845) 481.5158.
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