Surfing Einstein

Experimental dance feature film, 75 min

Director: Meritxell Campos Olivé

Choreography: Meritxell Campos Olivé

Producer: Dieter Meier

Camera: Marcus Bronst

Editor: Meritxell Campos Olivé

Scientific-artistic consultancy: Margherita Cappelletto

Music: Philip Weber, Roland Meyer de Voltaire

Cast: Pia Astone, Stavros Katsanevas, Sergio Frasca, Alessandro Bile, Sabrina D’Antonio, Juri La Rosa, Adele La Rana, Paola Leaci, Èttore Majorana, Simone Mastrogiovanni, Andrew Miller, Federico Muciaccia, Cristiano Palomba, Maurizio Perciballi, Ornella Juliana Piccinni, Lorenzo Pierini, Paola Puppo, Piero Rapagnani, Akshat Singhal

Location: Università La Sapienza, Rome and European Gravitational Observatory VIRGO, Cascina, Pisa, Italy.

Year: 2024

About: Surfing Einstein is an artistic documentary film, which deals with a group of physicists, who in 2016 proved the phenomenon of gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein. Taking the scientific story as a background, the film itself focuses on the human aspect of the research, the moments of frustration and joy, as well as togetherness and the unique forms of collaboration within the collective. The plot unfolds in the Physics Department of the Sapienza University in Rome and the Virgo Research Center near Pisa, portraying the everyday life and routine of the international group of scientists. However, unlike an interview, the stories they are sharing are communicated through dance – the endless performance smoothly flowing from working cabinets and laboratories to spacious halls and technical premises. The director Meritxell Campos Olivé, whose work as a filmmaker is deeply interspersed with her performative practice, has worked out very personal ways of movement with every protagonist in the film – the actual scientists that have never expressed themselves through dance and acting. In Surfing Einstein, community, intuition, continuous learning, imagination and perseverance are shown as values that can be set against today's advancing egoism and hyper-individuality.