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February 8, 2006

Unknown White Male

David Jeffers

A 2005 SIFF entry
Wednesday February 8, 7:00pm The Harvard Exit

Opens Friday, February 17

On Thursday morning, July 3rd 2003 an Englishman stepped off a subway car in Coney Island New York. Doug Bruce had no memory of who he was before that moment. With nowhere to go he turned to the police. Gradually, with the help of his doctors who diagnosed a rare "fugue state" amnesia, Doug reconnected the threads of his identity and within a few days embarked on a bizarre video diary of his own discovery, ala David Holzman. As he was reintroduced to his family and friends Doug agreed to document his story with an old mate, filmmaker Rupert Murray. Unknown White Male plays out as a fairly conventional if well crafted documentary. Murray does demonstrate a talent for striking visual montage, but nothing substantial happens and Doug Bruce never regains his memory. While a hospital video made early on seems to show a man in genuine distress, the sequence of events read like Swiss cheese and are ample fuel for skeptics in a post James Frey, A Million Little Pieces world.

Afterward…

One part of this story really left me confused. I was not the only one. Doug begins making his own video diary within a few days of his memory break. He has at that point discovered he is a photography student and I could assume the camera is a way to insulate himself from his shocking situation. Murray comes on the scene after some time has past. This turn of events is never explained. I spoke with Rupert Murray after the show and he offered this explanation: A mutual friend hooked Doug up with two gents in the video business interested in filming his story and he agreed. He went on to explain he could have begun with the conventional, "I am a film maker and this is the story" approach, but chose to reveal the story from Doug’s point of view which is more intriguing.
In the Q & A Murray talked about Doug Bruce today. He "has not regained his memory, but he really has become very much the same person he was before."

Posted by David Jeffers at February 8, 2006 11:42 PM
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