UNKNOWN WHITE MALE
Directed & Edited by: Rupert Murray.
Produced by: Beadie Finzi.
Director of Photography: Orlando Stuart.
Music by: Mukul.
Released by: Wellspring.
Country of Origin: UK. 87 min. Not Rated.

One July morning, Doug Bruce left his East Village loft and awoke on the subway heading to Coney Island, not having any idea who he was. The 34-year-old British-born photographer and former stockbroker had no memory of his friends or family. Among this documentary’s treasure trove of footage is a interview with a bewildered Bruce taped six days after he was found and taken to a hospital, where he became a person of interest for both his retrograde amnesia (the rarest form), but also, as one nurse gushes, for being good-looking with “a cute little accent.”

Unknown White Male begins with Bruce retracing his steps in Brooklyn when he discovered he was lost. Behind the camera is his friend Rupert Murray, documenting his yearlong recovery or rather, rediscovery. Murray accompanies Bruce for his family reintroduction in Spain, where Bruce confides to the camera that his father is not at all what he expected. His mother, to whom he was a golden child, died years earlier; family photos are his only connection to her. He has no memory of her or of England.

Interwoven throughout are family photos and home videos of the fast-living Bruce during his school days and on far-flung holidays with his mates, emphasizing the jarring contrast between Bruce then and now; they could be two entirely different men. The formerly confident leader of the pack is now pensive and somber. With knitted brow, his face now sags, and rarely does he lower his guard to crack a smile. When one longtime female friend says good night to Bruce, it is more like a witnessing a permanent than temporary parting. One reason for the strain between Bruce and his former friends is Bruce’s new life. He has started his life over without them, including recently falling in love.

Like a real-life Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, what makes the film fascinating is the surreal opportunity to watch someone experience their life for the first time. Strangely for a film made by a friend, a detached and tentative point of view prevails. Bruce carefully chooses his words, keeping the camera at bay. He does candidly open up at times, but his revelations are carefully filtered save for a few moments of spontaneous amazement when he sees snow and, later, fireworks. The film provides no follow-up with Bruce’s family, and includes little coverage of his new day-to-day life. Bruce, nor his new girlfriend, kisses and tells. What it’s like to experience love for the first time – presumably again, as an adult – is left off camera. Although there are extensive interviews with doctors, Murray focuses largely on Bruce’s personal recovery, albeit with gaping holes. Like his memory, it’s incomplete. Kent Turner
February 24, 2006