Marwencol

USA 2011, 83 min, documentary. Director: Jeff Malmberg.

In 2000, Mark Hogancamp was brutally attacked by five men in his hometown of Kingston, New York. After he emerged from a nine-day coma with brain damage, physical and occupational therapies helped him regain basic motor skills. When his insurance ran out he was “determined not to let those five guys win,” and turned to art as a therapeutic tool.

What this ex-navyman, carpenter, and showroom designer accomplished was nothing less than astonishing. He imagined and built in his backyard a fictional Belgian town he named “Marwencol.” This film is a quirky testament to the human spirit.