Unknown White Male

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Unknown White Male
Promotional movie poster for the film
Directed by	Rupert Murray
Produced by	Beadie Finzi
Starring	Doug Bruce
Running time	1 hr. 28 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Unknown White Male is a 2005 documentary film, directed by Rupert Murray, covering the life of Doug Bruce, a British resident of New York who appeared to suffer from sudden amnesia, who woke up on a subway train in Coney Island in 2003, not knowing who or where he was.

The authenticity of the film has been questioned by some critics, who allege that it is an elaborate fraud. The filmmakers have consistently refuted this allegation. Roger Ebert, noted critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, initially said he found the documentary "faintly fishy", but after meeting the filmmakers subsequently wrote that he was "convinced of its truthfulness".

During the film, medical experts establish that Bruce is suffering from a syndrome called retrograde amnesia, a form of amnesia where the sufferer cannot recall events from before the onset of the amnesia, although it remains unclear how or whether Bruce suffered a trauma which caused the amnesia.