Early last week, I sat down for an exclusive interview with Rupert Murray, director of the newest spark in the arena of documentary films, "Unknown White Male." The film details the experience of Doug Bruce, a man who, at the age of 37, awoke one morning on the New York subway without a clue as to his destination or, for that matter, his entire personal history. According to medical experts, Bruce suffered a rare case of total amnesia, completely deleting his episodic memory. In a most unique position as one of Doug's closest friends, Murray catalogued Doug's reintroduction to life as we know it as well as his desperate search to regain his personal identity. Although Murray expressed the difficulty of simultaneously creating a successful film and reforming a valued friendship, the benefits of his resulting realizations on the nature of philosophy, psychology and friendship far outweighed the downsides.
Question: So has Doug made any progress recovering his memory since the film was made?
Rupert Murray: Not really, he hasn't actually recovered any particular part of his memory. He's got a very good idea of what he did in his past, but it's just [other people] retelling him the information. But that's not a million miles away from the way that I remember things.
Q: Kind of like childhood memories...
RM: Drunken nights out. [Laughter]
Q: Would you say that his character has developed a lot differently than his initial character before the accident?
RM: Not really; I think his actual character is probably the same. He's got...slightly less to prove, more open, slightly warmer...I think it's a testament to his character. A lesser person - such as myself - may not have tackled it in such a brave way.
Q: It's debated whether genetics or environmental influences play a part in character development. How do you feel about that now that you've been so involved with his [Bruce's] case?
RM: I don't think there's really an answer...I've thought about it an awful lot, and I think the reason is because, in order to get a conclusive answer to that question, you'd have to conduct a horrific lifetime study on someone and sort of destroy their life. You'd have to give them amnesia so [that] they didn't remember anything...totally remove them from their own personal situation, take them to Bangladesh or wherever - Australia - and then see two years later how many of the characteristics they had from [before]...But I think that I err on the side of genetics...
Q: Recovering from the amnesia must have been interesting: having all the knowledge that [he, Bruce] learned, but not the knowledge of himself. [For example, Bruce was able to replicate his signature, even though he didn't know his name.]
RM: What happened was, we have episodic memories in our lives that, after a while, after they've been repeated enough times, you can transfer that information from your episodic memory. So instead of having a memory of the 15 driving lessons that I took when I was 19, [now] I just have an ability to drive. That's an example of my episodic memory being transferred into my procedural memory. That just shows you how our memories are split up...that the past memories and [the] new memories are kept in different parts of the brain.
Q: And he [Bruce] has no problem creating new memories?
RM: He's got photographic [memory], almost total recall of everything immediately after the accident. I think it was just [that] he was ready [after losing his memory] to remember; he was keen to remember... In a sense, he was really alive at that moment, on a bit of a high...
Q: Are you interested in making more documentaries?
RM: Love documentaries! I think 2004 was an amazing - an incredible, a breakthrough - year for documentaries. 2005, there was only one kind of massive hit - apart from ["March of the] Penguins," which I really didn't like, just 'cause I'd seen it before, on the BBC about 10 years ago...So it was a great privilege to be a part of the re-emergence - the emergence - of theatrical documentaries...and I can't wait to make another one. After this ["Unknown White Male"], it gave me so much experience, so much confidence; I really want to make a documentary that does break through about something really important.
Q: So what was the most exciting or entertaining thing about making the film? Getting him [Bruce] drunk for the first time?
RM: Jeez, you know, did I drink with him? [laughter] I don't think I did, actually. I think we did get drunk - a little bit drunk. What was weird [was] he [Bruce] was really bad at drinking...he got drunk really quickly. I don't think he's ever been really good at drinking, actually. Once, I remember he drunk eight pints of Snakebite [a popular U.K. drink made with half cider, half lager] at 8:00 in the morning. That is legendary throughout our entire group of friends...He was quite good, but then he threw up. That didn't happen last year; it happened over, like, 18 years ago...
Q: Where did you and Doug meet for the first time originally? RM: Can't remember. [laughter] No, I really can't remember...I must have met him in London. No, I have no idea when I first met him; of course, it was probably in a pub or in someone's apartment - alcohol would have been involved...
Q: What would you say [was] the most difficult part of filming?
RM: Quite difficult filming on the streets of New York; you have to get a permit from the mayor's office. Filming the interview with [Bruce's sister] Marina, that was quite difficult, because she didn't want to be in the film, but I persuaded her it was gonna be okay. She didn't want me to film their meeting in the pub, so I just had to stand by the door. And if, at moment, they felt too much, they could just tell me to stop, and I would. That was quite difficult...
Q: In your personal opinion, what do you think caused the amnesia?
RM: I think that it's organic. I think something happened to his [Bruce's] brain. Some people say that if it was, he would have got his memory back by now, and so the fact that it's gone on for so long proves that it's in some way psychological. Maybe it was something to do with the slowing down of his left temporal lobe, which they've recently discovered does have something to do with the re-distribution of past memories. Although they initially, when I first made the film, didn't think that it did. Maybe something happened to his brain to cause the amnesia, but the fact that he's not getting it back, that's psychological.
