The Hangface story comes home

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In the documentary MEMOIRS FROM A DREAM, audiences follow Hangface on a long and uncompromising journey, from their beginnings in Tromsø in 1999 to eight eventful years later in Orange County, California. It was there that the band broke up and the members went their separate ways. They have not shared a stage since.

Hangface emerged from a vibrant music scene in Tromsø in the late 1990s. In the early 2000s, the band made a choice few others dared to make. They moved to the United States to commit fully to their music. In the years that followed, they toured large parts of the country, played several hundred concerts across 46 states and lived in close quarters in a 33-foot tour bus.

For Dag Jørgen “Daggi” Berg-Helling and the rest of the band, Hangface was all-consuming during this period.

– Identity, lifestyle and brotherhood. It was the five of us against the world.

The ambitions were high, but without giving too much away, it is safe to say that the story took a different turn than the band had imagined when they went all in.

The boxes in Louisiana

The foundation for the documentary was laid many years later, when director Carl Christian Lein Størmer heard about boxes of home videos from the period when Hangface were pursuing their dream in the United States.

– I first heard that Daggi had started writing his memoirs. Then, almost in passing, he mentioned that they had been to the US and brought back several boxes of old recordings he planned to use as research. I went round to his place that same evening, more or less unannounced, with a camera, and asked where the tapes were, says Størmer.

Altogether, the material consisted of more than 500 hours of raw footage, filmed in a time before smartphones and social media.

– I was both excited and completely overwhelmed. The scale was enormous. It’s incredible how they documented absolutely everything over nearly seven years, and in such good quality. That doesn’t happen by chance. You need a plan to achieve something like that.

A deliberate documentation project

According to Størmer, the filming was a conscious, internal project within the band, with responsibility for documenting shared between members.

– Most of the time it was Espen Høgmo who filmed. He does a very strong job from a documentary perspective. Long takes, few interruptions, extra angles and B-roll. It gives the material a distinct quality.

Størmer quickly realised that the footage carried much of the story on its own.

– I understood straight away that this could become a film. The material told a large part of the story by itself. At the same time, I learned the story by going through the footage, and gradually began tracking down as many people involved as possible.

The work led to several trips to the United States.

– I’ve been over there three times. The last time, I travelled alone for six to seven weeks, interviewing everyone from producers and photographers to bodyguards, partners and ex-partners.

He also recalls several unusual situations.

– For example, sitting there interviewing two sisters who were ex-girlfriends of two band members, while their new partners were in the room next door. Yeah, he was my big love, and then they start crying, Størmer laughs.

More than music

For Berg-Helling, revisiting the footage was a powerful experience in hindsight.

– I thought: WTF? We documented absolutely everything. We lived together in a 33-foot tour bus for more than two years. We shat, ate, slept, argued, made up again, partied and worked relentlessly towards a shared goal. Imagine five strong personalities. It’s like being married to four other people. Give and take on steroids.

Størmer believes the film is not primarily about music.

– It’s about following a dream and going all in. About highs and lows, and about how people deal with them differently. And it helps that these are genuinely good people and strong characters.

Among his own memories from the Hangface years, one stands out in particular.

– In 2006 I was on a short holiday in the US and happened to be nearby when they were on their last major tour with Pat Benatar. They were playing stadium shows. I was invited backstage, and while they were on stage I drank up their bar tab. And I thought: bloody hell, I’ve got friends who are rock stars, and I get to hang out with them here in the US. It was fantastic.

Reunion at TIFF

When the film is shown for the first time at the Tromsø International Film Festival, Hangface will also reunite on stage. Together with Englebarn and Diamond, the bands will share the stage for one night only.

– In the film, you never get that conclusion. The bands don’t come back together there. That only happens this evening, says director Carl Christian Lein Størmer.

The screening therefore becomes both a film premiere and the band’s first joint performance in around 20 years, at the place where the story began.

– It all started in Tromsø. Ground zero. Of course it had to be shown here first. Full circle, says Dag Jørgen “Daggi” Berg-Helling. 

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