"An extraordinary film"

The Times

Unknown White Male tells the story of Doug Bruce, a young Brit who wakes up on the New York subway to discover he has no idea where he is - or who he is. What unfolds raises the kind of questions going to the very heart of what it is to be human. What is it like to have no idea whom your father or sisters are, or your friends? To have no inkling, not only of your favourite football team, but what football is? And is there any compensation in discovering the ocean, chocolate mousse, and love for the first time?

Directed by Bruce's childhood friend, Rupert Murray, Unknown White Male was in the Official Selection for Sundance, London Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Los Angeles, and was shortlisted for an Oscar.

Beadie Finzi - Producer: If you liked Unknown White Male you might like these...

Documentaries general
Why We Fight by Eugene Jarecki 2005
Czech Dream by Karlovy Vary 2004
Capturing the Friedmans by Andrew Jarecki 2003
The Devil and Daniel Johnston by Jeff Feuerzeig 2005
Tarnation by Jonathan Couette 2003

Features about memory amnesia or rebirth
Sans Soleil by Chris Marker 1982
Momento by Christopher Nolan 2000
The Man Without A Past by Aki Kaurismaki 2003
Spellbound by Alfred Hitchcock 1945
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser by Werner Herzog 1974
Being There by Hal Ashby 1979

Nobody ever really talks about why extras are included on a DVD. It's as if anonymous men in suits ask for a director's commentary, edit together some behind the scenes footage, slap them into the edit and bingo! there you have the limited edition DVD. Sorry to dispel the myth but it's not like that over here.

Firstly there was Doug - how was he doing? What had he been up to? Had he got his memory back? So an up to date interview with Doug was essential. As a filmmaker label we felt that addressing the issues the filmmaker had to deal with which were also key to the film. Prime amongst these for Unknown White Male was that Doug was a "hoax". Whilst this was upsetting for Doug, and ultimately boring for the filmmakers, Beadie, Rupert and Jess, we felt that it had to be tackled head on. So, they put together a short edit on the whole controversy and what it was like.

Thirdly, thanks to director Rupert's relationship with Doug and his friends, he really wanted the extras to talk in greater depth about what it was like to lose the old Doug, and discover the new. Baroness Warnock had talked at length about the nature and identity of man, and everyone felt that when you had someone like the Baroness talking about her special subject it really should be given more room.

And finally, Rupert had always been incredibly articulate about how difficult it was to visualise memory, and how the actual process of making a film with almost no archive footage demands different imaginative skills from a filmmaker - so he demonstrated this in this piece in the extras.

Enjoy, and do let us know what you think.
Penny Nagle, Shooting People Films.