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Health & Fitness

Neuro-Cinema and Beyond's: Marwencol

FREE screening, Saturday, February 25th at 2:15pm

Director Jeff Malmberg's documentary on Mark Hogancamp, a man left brain damaged and broke after a vicious attack, is part of the TFI’s "Neuro-Cinema and Beyond series" - a collaboration with Topanga Film Institute, John Wayne Cancer Institute, and Saint John's Health Center.

This summary comes from www.marwencol.com

"Marwencol" is a documentary about the fantasy world of Mark Hogancamp. After being beaten into a brain-damaging coma by five men outside a bar, Mark builds a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard. Mark populates the town he dubs "Marwencol" with dolls representing his friends and family and creates life-like photographs detailing the town's many relationships and dramas. Playing in the town and photographing the action helps Mark to recover his hand-eye coordination and deal with the psychic wounds of the attack. When Mark and his photographs are discovered, a prestigious New York gallery sets up an art show. Suddenly Mark'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's avoided since the attack.

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"Marwencol" has won over 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.”

FREE SCREENING on Saturday February 25th at 2:15pm.
Followed by a Q&A with Director Jeff Malmberg and neurosurgeon, Dr. Daniel Kelly

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Location:
Martin Luther King Auditorium
601 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90401

RSVP's are required: 1-800-ST-JOHNS

For more info, see link below:
http://www.newstjohns.org/neurocinema.aspx

Any other questions, please contact LG Taylor, lg@topangafilmfestival.com

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