Unknown White Male (2005 Film)

Unknown White Male (2005 Film)

Unknown White Male is a 2005 documentary film directed by Rupert Murray, covering the life of his childhood friend 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 film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2005. It was nominated for a British Independent Film Award, a Grierson and a Directors Guild of America award. It was also shortlisted for a Grierson and an Academy Award. It was theatrically released in the US by Wellspring and shown on Court TV. In the UK it was released by Shooting People, the filmmakers community whose members made the film and shown on Channel 4 TV who had commissioned the film originally.

During the film, medical experts opine 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.