Image by Burak Çevik
Binary Star: a film
*Winner, Best Experimental Film, Vancouver International ShortsFest*
Fátima, a dancer-choreographer, and David, an architectural historian, separated years ago yet remain profoundly connected. One night early in the pandemic, each lay sleepless, each thinking toward the other, revisiting shared experience, revising arguments, investigating motives, signs and portents, the elusiveness of purpose.
Part travelogue, part essay on time and architecture, part long-term love story, Binary Star sits firmly in that intermediary space where experimental, narrative, and documentary film intersect.
Weaving through motifs of wilderness and the built world, stillness and movement, solitude and intimacy, Fátima and David’s voices relay in tandem with the music of Stephen Lyons (Fond of Tigers) and a visual catalogue of places visited, captured by a dozen cinematographers—among them Burak Çevik (Belonging), Anna Maguire (Constellations), Alejandro Coronado (frequent collaborator of Nicolás Pereda and Lina Rodriguez), and Peter Mettler (Picture of Light)—filming in as many countries.
Binary Star was screened on 31 October 2023 at the Cali International Film Festival (FICCALI), accompanied by live music and voiceover from Lucia Bedoya, Stephen Lyons, Andrés Santacruz, and José Teodoro.
Binary Star was produced by Playwrights Theatre Centre & Applied Silence, written & directed by José Teodoro, scored by Stephen Lyons, edited by Richard Keating, & photographed by Laura Barrón, Jaime Carral, Burak Çevik, Alejandro Coronado, Alysha Galbreath, Álvaro Giron, Andreas Lewin, Jorge Lozano, Peter Mettler, Anna Maguire, Luz Ruciello, & José Teodoro. Voices by Steven Hill & Marion Landers. Bodies are those of Julieta Maria and José Teodoro.