A Seattle International Film Festival 2005 entry
Wednesday February 8, 7:00pm The Harvard Exit
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.
