“Where the Stone Waits for Me” is an ambient film blending experimental dance, landscapes,
and drone music. At its core is the simplicity of a rock—a still and tactile presence evoking connection and emptiness. Through evolving scenes depicted as daydreams, three dancers interact with the rugged terrain of the Icelandic highlands, their introverted movements revealing a quiet surrender and a yearning for the same quality embodied by the rock.
Director statement
Two years ago, I encountered and filmed a rock in the mountains of northern Taiwan. It had a uniquely still and undeniable physical presence, completely unaffected by the conditions surrounding it. That sensation became the departure point for this project. I wanted to focus on an elemental quality and to present a dreamlike world to escape to that reflects how I personally experience dance and these landscapes.
Both these places and our movement have various layers, some more obvious and visible than others. There is an aesthetic beauty, but never without processes of struggle and tension underneath the surface. I want to film dance and landscapes through my eyes while hinting at these hidden complexities.
The dance in my films is never choreographed but based on improvisation with the dancer’s personal movement language. This makes for a particular site- and time-specific result, tied to the specific person performing it. By approaching dance and film in this way, I wish for my films to be both distinctive and universal at the same time. In my understanding, the most intuitive individual expressions can appeal to the most basic and universal human experiences.
Bio
Julius Hulshof (b. 1998, Enschede, the Netherlands) is a dancer and visual artist working across experimental dance, film, and ambient soundscapes. He has performed internationally and is the recipient of the VandenEnde Foundation cultural grant with which he completed his most recent short film, Where the Stone Waits for Me.
Additional info
The film score is created by Czech artist Sgarz and will later be adapted and released as a long-form EP on music platforms (it might be out by the time this information is released). The sound belongs to the genre of drone music that usually has long sustained tones and minimalist textures. This type of music, especially that of drone legend Kyle Bobby Dunn, has always given me a sense of comfort and permanence. It is one of the main inspirations for everything that I make.
About the filming process, I am inspired by slow cinema (mostly Cai Ming Liang’s films) and believe in intuitive, unfiltered videography. To create a realistic texture and sensorial aesthetic, I used an older model professional video camera.
Finally, the production of this film was supported by the Dutch VandenEnde Foundation and Lloydscompany, and the filming took place in Oktober of 2024.
Pebbles Underground is focused on showcasing and promoting experimental, avant-garde, underground, and no-to-low budget projects by artist-humans from all over the world. Absurd, uncanny, witty, humorous, slow-video – all are welcomed, and loved.
Pebbles Underground is an independent project not funded by any government or corporation, and we intend to keep it that way. Main source of funding is personal donations from humans organizing the project, who are artists themselves, and the main drive of the project is formed by the energy and involvement of the organizers, and the public.
