Harmony Korine Puffs Cigar, Talks Inspiration for First-Person Shooter Art Film ‘Baby Invasion’: “You’re Starting to See Hollywood Crumble Creatively”

Harmony Korine, puffing a cigar and flanked by an artistic collaborator wearing a neon ski mask, brought his signature antic energy to Italy’s Venice Film Festival Saturday as he discussed his latest video game-inspired art film Baby Invasion.

The project, which Korine took pains to emphasize isn’t really a “film” at all, follows a group of mercenaries calling themselves the “Duck Mobb” as they loot mansions at gunpoint while wearing baby faces as digital avatars to conceal their identities. Resembling a first-person shooter game, the 80-minute visual experience will premiere Saturday night just before midnight at Venice’s historic Sala Grande cinema.

In a wide-ranging, at times deliberately incoherent press conference, Korine shed light on the way his Miami-based art collective EDGLRD works, while also taking a few gleeful shots at what he considers to be the “dying” art form of the traditional film industry.

“I’m not really even thinking about movies anymore; it’s more kind of experiences,” Korine said. “And one thing I would say to anyone that listens is that Hollywood needs to — well, they don’t need to — but they would be smart to encourage the youth, the kids. Because what’s happening in Hollywood is that you’re starting to see Hollywood crumble. ” 

“They’re losing a lot of the most talented and creative minds to gaming, to live-streamers like IShowSpeed,” he added. “They’re so locked in on convention and then all those kids that are so creative are now just going to find other outlets and go other places, because movies are no longer the dominant art form.”

A still from ‘Baby Invasion’

Venice Film Festival

Korine alaborated that “nothing is linear anymore” and that he believes “film will just stagnate and be just huge IP, or just this kind of very rarified experience.” 

He said that he believes the 19-year-old YouTube streamer IShowSpeed is “the new Tarkovsky.”

Discussing the construction of Baby Invasion, Korine explained that the “base layer” of the art film is security camera footage of home invaders. He said the “actors” he filmed for this material were real-life burglars whom he had cast after they were arrested robbing the homes of some of his friends in Miami. Other elements were then added atop the footage by the team of game designers and digital artists whom Korine has assembled for his design collective. The film’s score was composed by cult electronic musician Burial, whom Korine said he has only met by communicating over Discord and Sony Playstation. The woman who narrates the film, meanwhile, Korine said he discovered on OnlyFans selling her voice for its ASMR quality.

Korine said he hadn’t decided how the project would be released yet, but shared that the version of Baby Invasion being shown in Venice is only the “base layer” of what the project will become. In its eventual final form, according to Korine, viewers will be able to enter into and unlock five or six more sub-worlds, or additional film/game-like layers, within the experience.

The ski-mask wearing collaborator was revealed to be French arthouse director Gaspar Noé, whose contributions to Baby Invasion were only described as “mysterious.” Noé was invited to explain his involvement during the press conference, but he waved away the mic and remained silent.

(L-R) Gaspar Noé, Harmony Korine and Joao Rosa attend the “Baby Invasion” photocall during the 81st Venice International Film Festival at Palazzo del Casino.

Korine debuted this experimental new direction in his film and art-making practice in Venice last year with the world premiere of the psychedelic hit-man art film AGGRO DR1FT, featuring Travis Scott and Spanish actor Jordi Mollà.

In Venice Saturday, a journalist asked him why he chose only to exhibit that film by showing it in strip clubs rather than pursuing a more conventional release route.

“Yeah, I just thought it’d be cool,” Korine said. “It was nice going to the strip clubs — and you know, it just felt like the right time to hit it.”