How much of real life do we have in fiction?
Or should we say how much of fiction do we find in our real life events? No one can answer us better than Kristoffer Borgli (meet him on 2 episodes of our series 180 ID in the bottom of this page).
Do you still remember Whateverest and its main character Inspector Norse? An invented character who fits perfectly in the real life ambience of Todd Terje’s album?
Once again, with his film DRIB, debuting in SWSX, he’s made us dive into something in between reality and fiction. Is there such a big difference?
We got very curious about the ideia of creating this film so we talked with Kristoffer about the process of making it.
So, how did the idea behind DRIB came up?
It started with a real life story that couldn’t be told because of an NDA.
DRIB re-enacts the story of a failed violent marketing scheme for a well known energy drink, right? Tell us the story behind DRIB and the main character Amir.
It’s all told in the film.
Your recent stories — Whateverest and now DRIB — sit right in between reality and fiction. How does this option to mix real life events and characters with fiction guided your creative process?
Consider the state of literature at the moment. Consider the rise of the memoir, the incidences of contrived and fabricated memoirs, the rash of imputations of plagiarism in novels, the overall ill health of the mainstream novel. Consider, too, culture outside of literature: reality TV, the many shades and variations of documentary film, the rise of the curator, the rise of the D.J., sampling, appropriation, the carry-over of collage from modernism into postmodernism. Now consider that all these elements might somehow be connected, might represent different aspects of some giant whatsit that will eventually constitute the cultural face of our time in the eyes of the future. (opening passage of a review of David Shields’ «Reality Hunger»)
“We are all unique” and “stay awake” are some of the slogans behind DRIB. Tell us about this too.
DRIB is more of a concept than just a film; the products, garments and ads are all pieces of the concept. The ads play on different tropes of current advertising, from mythical powers that a motorcyclist can gain from consuming DRIB, or how white upper middle class 20-somethings embrace uniqueness and diversity, or preaching empowering messages of inclusivity and disability to scale a brand.
If DRIB has a taste, how does it tastes like?
Enlightenment.
We also asked Borgli to share with us some things he’s currently listening👂, reading👓 or watching👀 .
👂 An album
DRIB is packed with their music, and an original score by Felicita. I’m hooked!
👀 A film
Orson Welles was a troller.
👓 A book
