We spoke to CK Goldiing about 61 Hugs, his inspirational short film following the filmmaker taking on the challenge of hugging 61 strangers in one day.
This isn’t the first tricky social challenge you’ve set yourself. Why do you put yourself in these situations?
The answer’s developed over the years. The more I’ve done these challenges the more addictive they’ve become. I characterise myself as a creative, unscripted, content artist – there’s me, there’s an idea, there’s the universe, let’s see how the three things can match. 61 Hugs, I had no idea what would happen as it played out so that’s what I mean by unscripted. I now wish to write the biggest unscripted TV series in the world; I know that sounds outlandish but it isn’t an ego thing, it’s the emotional response people get from stuff. Grown men watched 61 Hugs and were just telling me in the screening room: “I’ve not cried at something like that for so long.” So when you’re able to elicit that sense of feeling and emotion from people it’s like I just want to do that more on a bigger scale.
I was going ask what boxes do these challenges have to tick for you to take them on, and I imagine that’s the main one, it has to elicit an emotional response from people. Are there any others?
I’m committed to creating stuff that at least you haven’t seen before. So when an idea comes to me there are some questions to ask, questions such as does this leave me vulnerable? The reason vulnerability is critical to me is because I understand that the audiences want some degree of jeopardy, so when I say to someone I’ve just done this film where I ask 61 complete strangers for a hug, I know the human psyche, how it works. The first question will always be about many people said no before how many people said yes. Humans are always gravitated to that thought. Mostly, I get that, so it’s like, if I can crowbar in some vulnerability then I know I’m already fifty percent there because it’s immediately going to capture people’s imagination, but more critically, when I’m vulnerable I feel like I operate better. Another question is: am I showing people other people in a way they haven’t seen them before? If you think about 61 Hugs, there’s nothing groundbreaking about it. I’m hugging humans; we’ve all hugged a human. I’m speaking to strangers; we’ve all spoken to strangers. But you very seldom see those things put together. I’m talking to strangers and asking them for a hug and I’m going to see people respond in a way I haven’t seen them before, doing things they haven’t done before, if that makes sense.
Rejection, or specifically the potential of rejection, is a theme running the film. I was wondering what your personal relationship with rejection is like?
It depends on the context. I’m hideous with rejection. If you look at it in the most basic level, I will never be the guy who goes up to somebody I find attractive in a bar. I’m not going to be that guy, I mean I’ve not been that guy, only a few times have I been that guy in my whole lifespan. So that’s kind of not great but in the context of a challenge arena I’m more fearless because I know I can’t lose and I’ll explain what I mean by that. In the context of 61 Hugs, for example, if I went over and asked someone for a hug, I have still won because I know that makes a compelling piece of content from an audience point of view even if I am rejected.
And have you ever thought about if you switched places around, would you have hugged back?
I say I would have hugged, but it’s also determined on – and I don’t want to get spiritual about this – but it depends on what their energy’s like. People think that I have some secret superpower that makes me successful in this sort of thing but it’s almost understanding body language, distance, there’s so many things that went into that that kind of helped me. If you noticed, I’ve never showed anybody on camera until they walked up to me. I’m doing this challenge and I get that that in itself is quite invasive and intrusive. I don’t make prank content, I’d probably grow faster if I did, but it’s not in my heart I just wanna make cool stuff with cool humans and to get that I don’t want anybody getting uncomfortable, so I told everybody it was a challenge. I could have not, I could have just said “do you want a hug?” and that might have been an interesting thing to do but I’m so obsessed with nobody feeling uncomfortable I was like, you know what, I’m willing to take the hit.
What’s the best thing that’s you have been told about 61 Hugs since it came out?
The collective one from is people reaching out to me and telling me their personal notes on what it did to them that day. For example, a first year student at Sheffield Hallam University who will be studying film and screenwriting tweeted me saying: ‘I’ve been a nervous wreck about moving to Sheffield thought I wouldn’t have been able to move to a new city. Just randomly discovered 61 Hugs and that’s all my overactive anxiety needed. Please watch this film.’ You just can’t put a price on that a creator and as a writer. And as a human, by the way.
Showing: The Light Free Screen, Howard Street.
Thurs 6 June @ 12-1pm
Sun 9 June @10-11am
Tues 11 June @ 6-7pm
