Unknown White Male

Synopsis: A disquieting documentary which presents a thoughtful reflection on identiry. It follows the life of a former stock trader who suffered a bout of amnesia on the New York City subway in 2002 and never fully recovered his former identity. Eventually diagnosed with a rare condition known as ‘retrograde amnesia’, Doug Bruce was transformed into a quiet photography student--a marked contrast to his former self, according to friends and colleagues who appear here. The documentary is directed by an old friend of Doug’s, Rupert Murray, who utilised footage that Doug himself had shot and new material which finds Doug asking one of life’s fundamental questions: who are we?

UNKNOWN WHITE MALE first premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, but it re-emerged in 2006 with a new edit and some newspaper headlines questioning the veracity of both Doug’s condition and the documentary itself.

48 minutes of DVD extras include an interview with Doug Bruce; the filmmaker’s response to the hoax theory; friends’ stories; interviews with scientists.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Year of release: 2006
Year of production: 2006
Notes: Broadcast on Channel 4 on 12/12/2006
Subjects: Psychology
Keywords: biographies; identity; memory; amnesia

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