Imagine waking up on the subway and realising that you had absolutely no idea where you were going. Not only that, you had no idea where you’d come from, or even who you were! Well that’s the account of Douglas Bruce, a 35 year old, well educated, former stock market trader living in New York, this was the beginning of an amazing, and at times frightening journey of self discovery.
Unknown White Male is a documentary, which charts the process Douglas Bruce went through to re-establish his life after seemingly suffering a extremely rare from of memory loss. It includes video diary style footage taken only a few days after he awoke on the subway, and with the help of an old friend, the film-maker Rupert Murray (who Doug didn’t have any memory of), an in-depth look into what makes us who we are.
There are an array of issues discussed in this film, ranging from the immediate fear and confusion of realising you have lost your personal history, to re-experiencing the beauty the world through child’s eyes.
There is a lot of speculation about Bruce’s story. Whether it’s true or an incredible hoax. You know what? I’m going to suggest that it doesn’t really matter in the context of this as a personal development catalyst. Like great art it seems to inspire people to ask questions they had never considered before. This is its success, not the morality of what is truth and what is fiction, but the core message, which is a celebration of life. This rejection of social and environmental conditioning, brings with it a chance of a new start.
There are real insights throughout Unknown White Male, supported by a dreamy/surreal visual narrative and soundtrack which Rupert Murray has lovingly crafted on what I believe was his directorial debut. In a nod to ‘Fight Club’, Doug Bruce states that he has places no importance on material possessions, despite apparently hoarding them in his pre-amnesiac life. Another interesting observation is that he now saw the world through the eyes of a new born baby, with the mind of an adult. Indeed, re-experiencing rain, snow and the ocean proved to be an emotionally charged event for Bruce.
The film centre’s around the timeless question of ‘Who are we really?’, is our personality simply an expression of our genetics, the result of our life experiences, or somewhere in between? Modern science has consistently failed to find any specific location of memory in our brain, and has come to understand memory of terms of a reconstruction of events, complete with filters and distortions applied at an unconscious level. It seems we do not store exact recordings of memory at all, but activate pointers to components which are re-hashed together to form a recalled event. The human brain truly is an amazing thing.
Having watched this film a number of times, I find it inspires my sensibility to the world around me, and reminds me that in every moment we start afresh. I’ve long contemplated whether the Past or Future have meaning, or if we live through each moment and in doing so establish a time-line to orient ourselves.
This is a documentary that will make you think, and hopefully inspire you to do more. I was left with a deep feeling of possibility, and many questions, many of which I later visually explored in my ‘Identity Art’ Series. Imagine starting life again with a clean slate, but retaining all the learned behaviours that allow you to function in the world. It’s a complex and interesting notion, and one that is worthy of consideration. If you would like to learn some more about the Unknown White Male documentary, you can check it out at the Amazon.co.uk link over at the right.
Think about it, who are we really?
