Harmony Korine, in a Demon Mask, Defends AI in Venice

“Everyone is kind of based in this film,” offered Harmony Korine. “They’re all just… based.”

The form-shattering filmmaker and visual artist behind works like Kids and Spring Breakers is at the Venice Film Festival — where his directorial debut Gummo premiered back in 1997 — to unveil Aggro Dr1ft, his experimental new feature, shot entirely in infrared, about a tormented assassin (Jordi Mollà, Korine’s Miami neighbor) on a trippy journey to kill a wicked crime lord. Rapper Travis Scott pops up as a fellow killer onboard a yacht.

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Aggro Dr1ft is the first project from Korine’s new company EDGLRD (pronounced: “Edgelord”), which has positioned itself as a multimedia studio specializing in design, gaming, film and tech, or thereabouts. And instead of being flanked by his Aggro collaborators at the film’s Venice press conference, Korine made the decision to bring along his EDGLRD company execs: Joao Rosa, the co-founder and head of production, and Eric Kohn, who recently left Indiewire to serve as its head of film strategy and development. Plus, the three of them chose to obscure their faces behind bespoke demon masks because, in Korine’s words, they were “comfortable.”

At one point during the presser, Korine was questioned about the film’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, which was employed to fill in parts of its hypnotic world, and has become a major sticking point in the ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes, with artists worried that studios will wield this emerging technology to exploit actors and supplant writers.

“I think it’s so exciting. I think it’s a tool. I don’t necessarily think it’s an existential crisis,” explained Korine, who is now 50. “I think if you’re looking at it as a creative tool, it’s very exciting… It’s almost like the frosting on a cake. It’s another layer, another paintbrush, another color, another way to integrate imagery and sounds, and play with the form.”

As far as collaborating with Scott — Korine appeared in Scott and Gucci Mane’s music video for “Last Time,” and recently directed a segment of the musical artist’s album-companion anthology film Circus Maximus — the filmmaker turned tech enthusiast was gushing with praise.

“Travis is great, and in his music and his energy and what he creates, he’s also creating a world and it’s heavily vibe-based, and it really matched the feeling and the idea and the character behind the film, the look of the film,” said Korine. “He’s very much tapped into that.”

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