Luke Fowler

Bogman Palmjaguar, 2008

30 minutes, Colour, Stereo, 4:3, 16mm film transfered to Digital

“Bogman Palmjaguar” is a portrait of a man who after a series of disturbing events became distrustful of people and withdrew into nature. Bogman describes himself as 'the hidden cat' and 'wild outlaw of paradise' and is fighting against a diagnosis that brands him as a 'paranoid schizophrenic'. Bogman's early life, and the diagnosis, subsequently conditioned his relationships with others, both within and beyond the medical establishment. The decision to take legal action to remove this label is of paramount importance to him, both as a search for justice and to seek reason in the course his life has taken over the past three decades. The film was shot across two visits to Bogman's home in a remote village in the north of Scotland. The former was motivated by Bogman's solicitor's request for an independent report by Dr. Leon Redler (author and colleague of RD Laing), to assess whether the label 'paranoid schizophrenic' was justified. The latter was in collaboration with sound artist Lee Patterson, documenting the environment that Bogman sought to preserve during his time as a conservationist. Bogman had been passionate about the threatened habitat of Scotland's Flow Country, a wilderness made of blanket bogs and peatlands that houses a unique diversity of wildlife. The peatlands however, also became a hideout, where Bogman fled attempts by authorities to section him. The film is a reconciliation of the young conservationist with his older self: isolated and withdrawn from society.