PHYSICAL CINEMA - PCF 2025 program
21.00 Salur 2 Bio Paradís 7 April (80 min)
The ongoing process of trying to make sense
Martin Klukas
00.16.05 min
The end of something
Clemens Wilhelm
00.15.00 min
Joy Sauce
William Ludwig Lutgens
00.13.00 min
Time to wake up
Freya Björg Olafsson
00.06.30 min
Je m‘aime
Katrín Ólafsdóttir
00.15.00 min
Heart of a tree
Clare Langan
00.13.20 min
Physical Cinema is a festival of various genres within the arts, showcasing short art films.
Featuring a unique blend of physical performance, visual art, sound design, music and cinema.Presenting short films and installations that offer a range of experiences, from unconventional and abstract storylines to poetic explorations of space.
PCF is a thoughtfully curated festival, teaming up with artists, curators, venues, and other festivals. While we don’t have an open call, we’re always eager to explore new ideas and works.
THE ONGOING PROCESS OF TRYING TO MAKE SENSE
The ongoing process of trying to make sense
Martin Klukas
16.05 min
ABOUT the ongoing process of trying to make sense
sensorium
sensibility
sensible
sentimentality
sensuality
sensation
sensational
sanity or not...
honesty in construction
a self not consciously known
a meaning is by no means natural
a taste resembles a fridge
a hyphenation of re-la-tion-ship
suicide idea’s like laughing yourself to death
you see everything, like a lightning over a field
how I see it
how I see it
how I see it
FAR
NEAR
in my opinion, that is martin
great martin
a piece of martin
WHAT Processes of questioning, searching and finding meaning expand the connection to what is satisfying and unifying or perhaps just a bit of humor along the way. I place myself in roles where performer, filmmaker, and recipient converge. In the process, a series of parables emerge, exploring modes of representation, decontextualization, deconstruction and sequencing in text, image and sound. From the technical aspects of filmmaking to the dance of breaking, every element tells a story that captures the essence of an abandoned place. Here space and objects become activated, opening up new perspectives on reality. Each of these objects left behind some kind of action between them and me. Lively sculptures, movement and interaction are often created in close proximity. The film is filled with metaphors with subtle commentary on life—nature as a role model, the power of paper, and the absurdity of winning by simply spinning a wheel. In the end, I leave you with a piece of myself, encouraging reflection on how I perceive, create or simply exist.
THE END OF SOMETHING
In the last summer before the corona pandemic, a techno-religious spectacle unfolds underneath the Eiffel Tower – a touristic ritual of life to those who came before, to those who will come in the future, and to those who are present now.
A final fireworks display in the summer sky of late capitalism, with promises of romantic love & eternal beauty. A daydream of mass tourism – the blessing and curse of Paris.
JOY SAUCE
Joy Sauce
William Ludwig Lutgens
13.00 min
Joy Sauce is a film by William Ludwig Lutgens that presents a narrated puppet theater set in a historical abbey, repurposed as an archive, museum, and civic center. The film explores the state of today’s workers and achievement-oriented individuals—both their own masters and slaves—trapped in the illusion of freedom and the constant struggle to perform. Lutgens’ characters appear zombified, symbolizing a loss of self in a system where economic structures exacerbate the worst in people.
The sharp, satirical undertone of the work is key to Lutgens’ distinctive visual language, developed across painting, drawing, and installation. The characters, costumed with masks, wigs, and painted clothing, navigate a world of excessive superficiality and productivity, reflecting themes of self-rejection and the difficulty of forming meaningful social and physical connections. The title, Joy Sauce, plays on the Lacanian notion of jouissance, a paradoxical form of enjoyment that exceeds mere pleasure, often involving excess, pain, or the transgression of limits. Lutgens examines the connection between the pursuit of passion and the transgressive nature of jouissance—both potentially liberating and self-destructive—frequently linked to the abject, that which we reject yet remain drawn to.
TIME TO WAKE UP
Time to wake up
Freya Björg Olafsson
06.30 min
In this machinima video work, 3D avatars of Freya are animated using AI-generated motion capture, choreographed through text prompts with SayMotion. Freya’s avatars move through an environment composed of 3D LIDAR scans from two personal archives: the exterior of Freya’s studio/live space (2006–2024) and performance materials from Tedd Robinson’s archive—a monologue printed across pieces of canvas and bells strung along two ropes with handles.
Freya’s engagement with Tedd Robinson’s archival materials began through MULTIPLES, a collective process initiated in 2023 through Ten Gates Dancing Inc., following Tedd’s passing in 2022. Tedd Robinson (1952–2022) was a Canadian choreographer, performer, and educator, renowned for his distinctive solos alongside many collaborative works. He was an essential mentor and advisor on Freya's works AVATAR (2009), CPA [Consistent Partial Attention] (2013), and MÆ - Motion Aftereffect (2019). Tedd continually questioned the role of archives—not as static repositories, but as living entities that renew, regenerate, and connect across generations.
This video considers the potential of moving images, 3D scans, code, motion capture, and avatars as digital archival tools that support and expand how dance and choreography are experienced, created, taught, documented, shared, archived, and remembered. The work blends virtual camera footage from Freya’s game environment with real-life video, including footage of Freya’s child, Ylfa, ringing Tedd’s bells and a cockroach in Freya’s oven. By bridging deeply personal scans and video with the artifice of AI-generated movement, the work explores the intersections of beginnings and ends, birth and legacy, presence and preservation—pondering how dance and choreography will exist 50 years from today in light of sociopolitical and technological change concurrent to environmental degradation.
JE'MAIME
Je m'aime
Katrín Ólafsdóttir
15.00 min
Summary
On a remote island, where the cycle of all beings become one beginning without end, a hunter discovers he is actually the hunted.
HEART OF A TREE
Heart of a tree
By Clare Langan
13.20 min
The Heart of a Tree contemplates the centrality of these giants of nature to the planet's survival, and ours. Trees provide us with the very air we breathe. It is a glimpse into a future world where human beings have evolved and adapted in order to survive. Pandemics such as coronavirus are the result of humanity’s destruction of nature, according to leaders at the UN, WHO and WWF International, and the world has been ignoring this stark reality for decades.
By ‘shaking the viral tree’ we have brought this pandemic upon ourselves. This film is a timely metaphor of a world turned upside down by our disregard for nature and the planet. The film is shot in a barren treeless landscape, which could either be a future vision of earth or another planet. The inhabitants negotiate their way through this inhospitable environment, harvesting air, the new gold. They plant trees on a deserted black beach, hoping to repopulate the planet with its source of oxygen.
The film explores the disconnection between humankind and nature and ultimately within ourselves. It is about redressing this imbalance, which has reached a tipping point. Global ecology is a delicate balancing act. It has become necessary for humans to evolve within their environment in order to survive. The film's narrative contains this tension between harmony and strife.
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