In 2000, Mark Hogancamp was beaten into a coma by five men outside of a bar in Kingston, NY. Unable to continue

Book about Marwencol produced by the filmmakers

paying for medical help, Hogancamp began to create a new world in his backyard as a form of physical and emotional therapy during his recovery (which is ongoing). The resulting 1/6th scale Belgian village, named Marwencol, is a fantasy oasis set in the middle of World War II peopled with lifelike dolls, many based on real people in Hogancamp’s life. And this town has, in turn, become the subject of a new documentary of the same name.

 

The story of Marwencol begins when Hogancamp’s alter ego crash-lands in a European field and is drawn into an almost-empty village by a group of beautiful women. He makes this place his home, beginning a narrative that continues and grows day by day as new dolls and storylines are introduced. This "second" world has rescued Hogancamp, helping him to deal with an attack that still haunts him and keeps him from fully functioning outside the village.

Mark Hogancamp at his White Columns art show in New York City.

And then there are the photographs. Moving and beautifully realized, Hogancamp has taken thousands of photographs of Marwencol, chronicling its stories, and capturing them with a stunning sincerity. Drawing on our popular ideas of everything from war nostalgia to pulp exploitation cinema (there’s a river scene reminiscent of the original Inglorious Bastards movie), the “discovery” of the photographs have led to an appreciation in the art world of Hogancamp’s work.

Three weeks ago, when director James Benning was in San Francisco, he spoke briefly about his love for folk artists such as Vivian Girls creator Henry Darger. At the same time he pointed out that we’re too apt to label this work as primitive; the so-called folk art that really rises to the top needs no context, it’s successful in and of itself. While Hogancamp’s story is deeply moving, and in the documentary he comes across as intelligent and endearing, it’s the work itself that elevates the story. Director Jeff Malmberg features Hogancamp's photographs heavily, which is a good choice, especially considering Hogancamp remains reluctant to leave his home, so this is a rare chance to see his images of the town writ large.

Jeff Malmberg, Director

Malmberg treats the story behind the photos with a deft touch, guiding the audience through unfolding revelations about Hogancamp’s life, while showcasing the photographs in a way that allows their artistry to glow. The story also evokes the vivid connection adults lose between themselves and the world of make-believe, the complex imaginative narratives that once lived inside us, and the real connection we once felt with dolls and other inanimate objects.

Marwencol is the well-deserved winner of the SXSW Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature (I predict there will be a screening in San Francisco and other cities soon). Director Malmberg and co-producer Chris Shellen were in attendance in Austin, and were selling a small book of Mark E. Hogancamp’s photographs. This isn't currently available for sale online, but check back at the Marwencol website in the coming weeks.

At Link TV we've always strived to connect American audiences with the rest of the world through our eclectic programming and live video feeds. As new technology constantly evolves, our ability to rub elbows with netizens from all over the industrialized world has exploded. There are still millions of unheard voices, but now we are connecting across borders through movements as diverse as rock music and Iranian protest. Some conduits are bizarre (Chat Roulette) and others strangely addictive. Second Life is a bit of both, and is the subject of Life 2.0, which chronicles the misadventures of four Second Life Residents, inside and outside of their virtual world.

 

Bad love in Life 2.0

Second Life is not a game - it's an online environment with shopping malls and castles, where avatars called Residents can design products, talk with each other, make real money, DJ, have sex (3D glasses?), buy a dream house, even watch a movie and participate in an interactive Q&A session with the "real" world. But stepping outside of reality can be dangerous, especially when it allows us to explore parts of ourselves traditionally left in the subconscious, and tamped down by the strictures of society.

In Life 2.0 we meet an adulterous couple, a male web programmer who has assumed the frowned-upon form of an 11 year old girl, and an African American entrepreneur from downtrodden Detroit, making "six figures" in Second Life. Over time these three stories evolve and devolve from addictive ecstasy to hard felt reality. Director Jason Spingarn-Koff seems to have mixed feelings about his subjects, loosely framing them from the outset as laughable losers on a dangerous path. It's a risky line for a documentary to take, playing with the audience's ability to sympathize with the characters, but on balance Spingarn-Koff pushes the human drama angle to the end, and the combination is a sad one.

In a short Q&A after the screening, Spingarn-Koff admitted that he didn't expect to get a positive reaction from his subjects upon seeing the film, also mentioning that some aspects of Second Life, such as the utilization of the space by nonprofits, and its potential use for cross-cultural exchange, were left out to focus on the personal stories. To his surprise, some of the participants have championed the film as a warning message to others considering plugging in and avataring any time soon.

Audience members might find it difficult to relate to a group of people so easily drawn into an escapist world, especially if it's one they've never been interested in themselves - but perhaps the booming video game industry has made the idea of virtual worlds mainstream. After the film, audience interest might be piqued, but the film also has enough of a melancholic ick factor to potentially keep them out for life.

In contrast, Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio couldn't be more rooted in the tangible world. Samuel Mockbee was a Southern architect, teacher and practitioner whose Rural Studio at Auburn University had (and still has) a social mission: to design and build houses and public projects for impoverished Alabama communities. Mockbee has passed away, but his vision thrives: students who participate in the program break free from traditional academic practice to live and work in the community, providing the labor and materials needed for special, one-off building projects.

 

Jay Sanders and Jimmie Lee Matthews (aka Music Man) in Citizen Architect

 

Citizen Architect Director Sam Wainwright Douglas (left) with Martin Ginestie (Robin Hood Gardens)

Responsible architecture in this context goes beyond sustainability, instead focusing on the role of buildings to improve peoples' lives, both practically (think running water) and emotionally (occupying beautiful spaces). Instilling this philosophy in students forces them to consider the role their work will have in the future, and its potential to do real social good beyond basic remuneration.

 

Also, there's nothing like actually building a house by hand if you're planning on telling other people how to do it for a living.

 

The documentary follows the story of "Music Man" (Jimmie Lee Matthews) and his house, as it is built by a group of 20 year old students with instructor Jay Sanders, the year after Mockbee's death from leukemia.

 

Focused more on interviews with Mockbee, his philosophy, and the work of the studio, the documentary chooses an illustrative small story over shifting focus to the bigger questions surrounding the ethics of architecture which, while touched on through interviews and the school itself, tend to take a back seat.

Mockbee's message and work are so powerful, they could stand the stress of a much larger context, and it's a shame the film didn't step up to be that film about architecture that some of us are waiting for.

Citizen Architect will broadcast on PBS. For more info visit the Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio website. Citizen Architect played alongside the excellent short documentary Robin Hood Gardens (Or Every Brutalist Structure For Itself), a portrait of a beleaguered housing project in London's East End.

For more information on Life 2.0, visit the Life 2.0 website.

As the focus of SXSW shifts from Interactive to Music, the film programming rolls on. Coming tomorrow: The Oath and Marwencol.

 

Every April, the city of Austin explodes into a rush of crowds dodging from tech event to film screening to music performance (to barbeque) as part of the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. As Link TV’s Director of New Media I occasionally have to make the personal sacrifice of braving the crowds to keep Link TV on top of the latest tech trends. This has paid off through the many partnerships that were created last year that are now a part of our new project ViewChange.org.

At Link we’re often asked why not all of our programming is available online. It’s because we are largely an acquisitions broadcaster, which means that instead of only creating original programming, we often license the best content available from other countries around the world. These documentary and film rights are usually sold piece by piece to cable, satellite, and online, as well as “territory” by territory. That last point is why, for instance, Hulu is not available outside the US, and the BBC iPlayer is not available in the US. The rights have been carved up and sold to different regions and different platforms.

Because SXSW is a unique combination of film and technology, several panels dealt with the topic of online distribution. Industry icons Mark Cuban (owner of HDNet, Magnolia Pictures, Landmark Cinemas and the Dallas Mavericks) and Avner Ronen (owner of Boxee, a free media center application which will soon have Link TV programming) are notorious for their outspokenness, and together are also known for a public spat they had last year, which continued throughout the session, with Cuban arguing for cable- and satellite-based on-demand services, which are profitable, and Ronen pushing for online distribution.

	Hands up if you watch Hulu: Cuban and Ronen panel at SXSW

Monday marked the public launch of AnyClip, a movie quote service which allows visitors to search for any scene from “any film” (caveat: they have indexed thousands of films, but not all films). After their successful private launch at TechCrunch last year, they were forced to reexamine the idea that they would be able to present actual video clips for their entire quote library online. This was an initial criticism I had for the site. The same rights restrictions that limit Link TV’s site are in play for AnyClip, and until they can guarantee a certain dollar figure in revenue to the studios, they will have to rely on text-only quotes.

 

	AnyClip's vice president of product and technology Nate Westheimer

Homing in on this feature could be lucrative for them, if they can partner with technology platforms like Blu-ray to provide quick search within films, or with other streaming services with larger libraries who would find the search tools useful. For instance, in another SXSW panel Peter Becker (Criterion) asked, “Why can’t you type ‘You know how to whistle don’t you?’ into Netflix and get the exact scene from To Have and Have Not?” If Netflix partnered with Anyclip, that could happen. But deeper than that, users can tag scenes with descriptions, for instance “Rocky training montage” or “When Harry Met Sally orgasm scene.”

 

Deeper than that, you can also find, for instance, all the scenes from boxing movies that involve trainer-athlete relationships. That could be a great tool for discovery, or displaying related content. AnyClip probably wouldn’t advocate this, but the potential for mash-up artists to create the ultimate, say, cross-movie training montage is fantastic. Now that there are multiple potential revenue models for AnyClip, they might find some more traction in the industry.

 

Read more about AnyClip at VentureBeat.

 

That’s it for tech right now. Up next: Film.