By Rupert Chiarella

On July 2, 2003, Doug Bruce, British expat and a successful stockbroker-turned-photo student, emerged from a Coney Island subway station and into the eternal sunshine of a spotless mind: his own. Unknown White Male, commissioned by the U.K.’s Channel 4 and produced and directed by Bruce’s longtime friend Rupert Murray, chronicles the aftermath of Bruce’s rare affliction with retrograde amnesia, which seemingly erased all memory of Bruce’s 37 years of existence. Murray uses standard voiceover narration as well as interviews, colorfully saturated images and a soundtrack of abstract and classical music that communicates the surreal nature of Bruce’s life-altering experience. The subject himself takes center stage through the film’s careful reenactments, with Murray following Bruce over the next two years as he reunites with former friends and family members. Bruce’s circle of friends and family members lament the passing of the person they once knew, and we watch as Bruce rediscovers movies and touches snow for the first time.

The production notes of Unknown White Male (the title is taken from the term police used to refer to Bruce) discuss the fascination with memory loss in such recent narrative films as Memento, Mulholland Drive and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. While the emotions evoked by Unknown are similar to those in these films, “I wanted to capture an incredibly rare story on film,” says Murray. But the extreme rarity of Bruce’s amnesia may lead some to question the veracity of the film. “The doubters have been few,” Murray claims about viewers who’ve wondered if the action was staged. The subject’s close friends and family don’t doubt the drama. For them, the Doug Bruce they once knew is the same man but not the same person. They, like the audience, learn to rediscover, through the now-virgin eyes of Bruce, the world for the first time. And that makes Unknown White Male a highly thought-provoking viewing indeed.