Showing as part of the “Black Box” section of the festival this was an experimental documentary film that charted the life of a young man leading up to his suicide. The tale is told by those who knew him best and through archive footage.
The eponymous “Mark” was in a long term relationship with a transexual and the two shared their lives with people who live on the outside of the mainstream. Mark appears to have been warm, kind, loving and charitable and all of the friends and family interviewed here appear equally nice. The problem is that I didn’t like any of them.
With “wacky” haircuts, a keen sense of reveling in their “difference” and the sort of liberal attitude guaranteed to set my teeth to itch it was always going to be difficult for me to really feel any sympathy for Mark and the people he left behind.
I admired his stance on animal rights.
I felt glad that he was able to love someone who many would shun.
I could tell how much he was loved.
I understood their sense of “otherness” but try as I might I just didn’t like them.
Maybe I’m a dreadful, cold-hearted sod.
The film itself is well crafted and stands as a beautiful testament to someone who might otherwise just have disappeared. The sort of friend, brother, son that we all have and who we would all miss just as much and for that the film-maker should be commended.
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