Nov 15 Sat MARWENCOL AND HOGANCAMP AT PIONEERWORKS
Nov 15 Sat 7-10pm Pioneerworks 159 Pioneer Street 718 596 3001 Film and Women of Marwencol Exhibition at Pioneerworks
Posted on November 8, 2014 by textgenie
Mark Hogancamp shows his lead actress to admiring filmgoers
Nov 15 Sat Film Women of Marwencol at Pioneerworks
Order 10061917
Address: 159 Pioneer St, Brooklyn, NY 11231 (between Imlay & Conover streets)
Phone:(718) 596-3001
Saturday November 15
7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Pioneer Works will present a screening of the 2010 documentary Marwencol (directed by Jeff Malmberg), on Saturday, November 15th at 7pm followed by a reception.
In conjunction with this screening, Pioneer Works and ESOPUS are proud to present “Women of Marwencol: Recent Photographs”, and exhibition featuring large-scale prints related to the images reproduced in the ESOPUS edition along with other photographs. Curated by Janet Hicks, director of One Mile Gallery in Kingston, NY, the pieces range from early works documenting the fascinating origins of the town to brand-new photographs by Hogancamp featuring life-size mannequins.
HOW IT TURNED OUT
Marwencal A film about an artist who takes refuge from a violent reality in dolls – specifically, who builds a marvelous landscape in his backyard filled with soldiers and beautiful women who act out for his still camera stories where good triumphs and wrongs are righted.
Marwencal was a rare chance to see this unique, widely praised documentary from 2010 on a large screen. It deserves its accolades, which sent it to the top of many lists. Engaging, moving and transporting, it is a sympathetic, uninflected study of the consequence of a horrible event in one vulnerable human being, in whom fragile flowers of fantasy bloomed on the grave of murdered trust to rescue and renew his life.
Marwencal is the tale of a personal outdoor village of dolls and of its creator Mark Hogancamp, a solitary, homegrown self taught artist of some talent whose unspoiled, childlike honesty about himself and his mildly off track makeup (in only a single respect – he is a “cross dresser” who treasures women’s shoes and loves to explore what it feels like to be a woman in stockings and high heels) led to a disastrous collision with five yahoos in a bar, who beat him so badly into a nine day coma that his brain was emptied of years of memory and his face (shown in shocking photos in the film) was so grotesquely reddened and swollen that it seems miraculous that he ever managed to return to his former robust and cheerful good looks.
One thing that possibly never will be the same is his constant glancing over his shoulder, his enduring fear that another brute attack will come out of nowhere to punish him again for his still unspoiled sincerity, even though that common trait of genuine artists is surely a mark of the highest civilization. To treat strangers with his great trust in their acceptance and understanding is surely a compliment which only makes it all the more obscene for vicious louts to betray his confidence in the humanity we all share.
What Marwencol skilfully depicts (winning honor for its masterful first time director Jeff Malmberg, who was unfortunately not present at this showing, unlike the hero of the film, who held court afterwards for a crowd of warm admirers) is how this vulnerable, bloodied but unbowed victim of his own truth telling fends off this fear by creating a world of his own to defend himself against the world he shares with us and in which he lives at risk. He substitutes a fantasy world, one with a narrative which he controls, to refill his rebooted but blank memory with images of good triumphantly defended, and evil overcome, not to mention kind ladies.
The stories Hogancamp’s detailed dolls act out are situated in Marwencol, a 1/6 scale village he built himself that is ruled by his edict that American, British and German soldiers (all in correct uniforms, with jeeps and pistols authentically reproduced) should fraternize in friendly fashion in the village bar. One doll is his “alter ego” Mark, who is well catered to by several dozen Barbies in Marwencol and ends up ‘marrying’ a blonde one, much to the annoyance of her rival, a brunette. All the story lines are recorded shot by posed shot by Mark, originally with a film 35 mm camera.
Violence interrupts this paradise when a squad of SS soldiers arrive, however, and find the village deserted (almost everyone is in the bar). Unable to force the location of the bar out of a Barbie in charge of the church, they shoot her. The women of Marwencol rally, force their way into the church and kill all the SS men. All this is recorded shot by shot by the patient and careful Hogancamp, at first on film which had to be sent in for developing and took two weeks to reveal whether the exposure was correct or had to be redone.
Tying it all together with a ribbon of warmth and charm is the voice over of Hogancamp telling his own story in the relaxed tone of an open hearted grown up child. This showing at the huge Pioneerworks brick factory building in Red Hook was accompanied by his photos up on gallery walls beside the folding chair theater space. The film was projected on a large hanging wall screen and run from a laptop (which froze and had to be rebooted just at the final scene). The seating was packed and afterwards many stayed for red wine ($5) and a chance to speak with the mild mannered Hogancamp, making a rare personal appearance with his most dynamic doll placed on his chest.
“When I was small I loved the height of women’s hemlines and stockings and my mother knew, and she would bring me with her friends these great beautiful German blonde women with nylons and heels and I loved it. I loved it.” he said.
Also present at the start was Dustin Yellin, the founder and director of Pioneerworks who bought the huge factory building in which it operates, which is next to the studio in which he turns out his human figure constructions of feathers and flowers, one of which was on display.
Read MorePosted on November 8, 2014 by textgenie
Mark Hogancamp shows his lead actress to admiring filmgoers
Nov 15 Sat Film Women of Marwencol at Pioneerworks
Order 10061917
Address: 159 Pioneer St, Brooklyn, NY 11231 (between Imlay & Conover streets)
Phone:(718) 596-3001
Saturday November 15
7:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Pioneer Works will present a screening of the 2010 documentary Marwencol (directed by Jeff Malmberg), on Saturday, November 15th at 7pm followed by a reception.
In conjunction with this screening, Pioneer Works and ESOPUS are proud to present “Women of Marwencol: Recent Photographs”, and exhibition featuring large-scale prints related to the images reproduced in the ESOPUS edition along with other photographs. Curated by Janet Hicks, director of One Mile Gallery in Kingston, NY, the pieces range from early works documenting the fascinating origins of the town to brand-new photographs by Hogancamp featuring life-size mannequins.
HOW IT TURNED OUT
Marwencal A film about an artist who takes refuge from a violent reality in dolls – specifically, who builds a marvelous landscape in his backyard filled with soldiers and beautiful women who act out for his still camera stories where good triumphs and wrongs are righted.
Marwencal was a rare chance to see this unique, widely praised documentary from 2010 on a large screen. It deserves its accolades, which sent it to the top of many lists. Engaging, moving and transporting, it is a sympathetic, uninflected study of the consequence of a horrible event in one vulnerable human being, in whom fragile flowers of fantasy bloomed on the grave of murdered trust to rescue and renew his life.
Marwencal is the tale of a personal outdoor village of dolls and of its creator Mark Hogancamp, a solitary, homegrown self taught artist of some talent whose unspoiled, childlike honesty about himself and his mildly off track makeup (in only a single respect – he is a “cross dresser” who treasures women’s shoes and loves to explore what it feels like to be a woman in stockings and high heels) led to a disastrous collision with five yahoos in a bar, who beat him so badly into a nine day coma that his brain was emptied of years of memory and his face (shown in shocking photos in the film) was so grotesquely reddened and swollen that it seems miraculous that he ever managed to return to his former robust and cheerful good looks.
One thing that possibly never will be the same is his constant glancing over his shoulder, his enduring fear that another brute attack will come out of nowhere to punish him again for his still unspoiled sincerity, even though that common trait of genuine artists is surely a mark of the highest civilization. To treat strangers with his great trust in their acceptance and understanding is surely a compliment which only makes it all the more obscene for vicious louts to betray his confidence in the humanity we all share.
What Marwencol skilfully depicts (winning honor for its masterful first time director Jeff Malmberg, who was unfortunately not present at this showing, unlike the hero of the film, who held court afterwards for a crowd of warm admirers) is how this vulnerable, bloodied but unbowed victim of his own truth telling fends off this fear by creating a world of his own to defend himself against the world he shares with us and in which he lives at risk. He substitutes a fantasy world, one with a narrative which he controls, to refill his rebooted but blank memory with images of good triumphantly defended, and evil overcome, not to mention kind ladies.
The stories Hogancamp’s detailed dolls act out are situated in Marwencol, a 1/6 scale village he built himself that is ruled by his edict that American, British and German soldiers (all in correct uniforms, with jeeps and pistols authentically reproduced) should fraternize in friendly fashion in the village bar. One doll is his “alter ego” Mark, who is well catered to by several dozen Barbies in Marwencol and ends up ‘marrying’ a blonde one, much to the annoyance of her rival, a brunette. All the story lines are recorded shot by posed shot by Mark, originally with a film 35 mm camera.
Violence interrupts this paradise when a squad of SS soldiers arrive, however, and find the village deserted (almost everyone is in the bar). Unable to force the location of the bar out of a Barbie in charge of the church, they shoot her. The women of Marwencol rally, force their way into the church and kill all the SS men. All this is recorded shot by shot by the patient and careful Hogancamp, at first on film which had to be sent in for developing and took two weeks to reveal whether the exposure was correct or had to be redone.
Tying it all together with a ribbon of warmth and charm is the voice over of Hogancamp telling his own story in the relaxed tone of an open hearted grown up child. This showing at the huge Pioneerworks brick factory building in Red Hook was accompanied by his photos up on gallery walls beside the folding chair theater space. The film was projected on a large hanging wall screen and run from a laptop (which froze and had to be rebooted just at the final scene). The seating was packed and afterwards many stayed for red wine ($5) and a chance to speak with the mild mannered Hogancamp, making a rare personal appearance with his most dynamic doll placed on his chest.
“When I was small I loved the height of women’s hemlines and stockings and my mother knew, and she would bring me with her friends these great beautiful German blonde women with nylons and heels and I loved it. I loved it.” he said.
Also present at the start was Dustin Yellin, the founder and director of Pioneerworks who bought the huge factory building in which it operates, which is next to the studio in which he turns out his human figure constructions of feathers and flowers, one of which was on display.
