D3VEN: Our Journey as a Film Noir

It's late. Outside it is raining, the way it rains in every good crime story. Fifteen years have passed since the last lines of this diary were written in New York. 97,000 kilometres, four journeys, about fifty countries. Since then it has all been lying here: the stories, the fotos, a pin for every night.

Then we opened the archive once more, but with different eyes. What if none of this were a travel diary, but a case file? Case 97012. A subject. A companion nobody can confirm. And a road with a body on it, and nobody will say whose.

That became D3VEN: a film noir in five acts that you don't watch, you scroll. Strictly black and white. Every scene has three layers that move at different speeds as you scroll: at the back our fotos from the road, in the middle rain, smoke, blinds and streetlights, in front the lines. Some of them come from this diary, retold in the voice of a tired investigator. Most are quotes in the tone of old crime films, written for this film.

The poster. With the torch you see more.

It opens with the film poster. Move the mouse or a finger across it and you are holding a torch, and if you shine it carefully you will find more than the title. Then come five acts, between the road and Room Nine in New York. Whether the journey was ridden or only dreamt up in that room, the film leaves open. That is part of the case.

The fotos are all ours, taken on the road and developed again in black and white. A tip: lights off, no sound needed, and scroll slowly. Best on a big screen, but it works on a phone too.

And if, after the fifth act, you want to know how it really was: the true story is here, in this diary. It was here all along.

d3ven.com. Case 97012. The file is open.