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Director: Rupert Murray Producer:  Vanessa Arteaga, Beadie Finzi, Jess Search Stars: Doug Bruce MPAA Rating: PG-13 Year of Release: 2005 Running Time : 88 minutes

A film review by Sara Schieron UNKNOWN WHITE MALE follows two years in the life of a 35 year old, financially successful Brit in NY following his drastic development of a rare form of amnesia. Waking one morning in a subway car in Coney Island, Doug Bruce had no recollection of his home, his name or the life he led. Titled after the medical record given to Doug Bruce in Coney Island Hospital, this documentary is a beautiful comment on identity, memory and relationships. Assisted by the narration of the filmmaker, a neurologist and a psychologist, the viewer gains some insight into Doug's condition, the structure of the brain the construct of memory. Newly, Doug is introduced not just to his family, but to the physical world as well, and so we vicariously witness his childlike awe at the simplest details. The director explains, "Doug experienced the world like a child in the body of an adult...seeing no cliché or copy, only originality." Using photography that imparts a sense of wonder for the marvel of life on earth, the film repeatedly offers its audience the experience of being like the theoretical Anthropologists on Mars. Through this perspective, we easily identify with Doug's position, his awkwardness, his reticence, and the overwhelming excess of "discovering" the world around him. This also seems like a gentle comment on the nature of his identity as an "alien" of sorts. His home in NY a construction for him (as home is for anyone) finding his bearing seems all the more insurmountable, and the concept of national identity appears altogether improbable.  Almost comically, the filmmaker, Rupert Murray, accompanies Doug to England to meet with old friends. Compelled to broker the marriage to their mutual homeland, Rupert gives Doug an impromptu tour of London. To which, this man with an overt English accent replies: "this is much more beautiful than New York. But the only way it's familiar - do you remember that first scene in 28 DAYS LATER?" The irony is palpable. In Voice Over, a Harvard neurologist explains that our memories are "not exact replays of experiences", they're put together from all parts of the brain, logically connecting one bit with another to build a puzzle of our pasts. Doug's situation poses the question: if our identities are a product of our pasts, and our pasts are in constant reconstruction, can we say a man with amnesia has really lost himself? Though certainly Doug voiced his disorientation and fear as he waited to be "recognized" at the Coney Island Hospital, but when he was picked up the emotion he expressed was for relief that he felt a sense of "belonging". Following his retirement from a short but lucrative career as a stockbroker, Doug enrolled in photography school, and after his amnesia, the quality of his photographs changed dramatically. Stark yet resonant, his portraiture is described his photography teacher as a kind of self-portraiture. Poetically, Doug's individuation is about belonging and his search for himself requires him to find himself in the world, which has far more to do with communing with others than to defining himself. UNKNOWN WHITE MALE IS RELEASED FEB 24. CHECK YOUR LOCAL LISTINGS.