Binary Star

* Winner, Best Experimental Film, Vancouver International ShortFest*

Part travelogue, part essay on time and architecture, part long-term, long-distance love story, Binary Star is at once a deeply personal work and a unique collaboration between artists of varied disciplines working in locations all over the world.

Fátima, a dancer-choreographer, and David, an architectural historian, separated years ago yet remain profoundly connected. One night in March 2020, each lies sleepless in their respective hotel rooms, continents apart. Each lies thinking toward the other, revisiting shared experience, revising arguments, and investigating motives, dreams, signs and portents, and the elusiveness of purpose.

Weaving through motifs of wilderness and architecture, stillness and movement, time and geography, solitude and intimacy, Fátima and David’s voices relay in tandem with the music of Stephen Lyons and a visual catalogue of places visited, captured by a dozen cinematographers filming in as many countries.

Written and directed by José Teodoro

Music by Stephen Lyons

Voices by Steven Hill, Marion Landers

Photographed by Laura Barrón, Jaime Carral, Burak Çevik, Alejandro Coronado, Alysha Galbreath, Álvaro Girón, Andreas Levin, Jorge Lozano, Anna Maguire, Peter Mettler, Luz Ruciello, José Teodoro

Produced by Playwrights Theatre Centre & Applied Silence

Binary Star had its world premiere on October 31, 2023 at the Cali International Film Festival (FICCALI), in Cali, Colombia, where it was presented with live music, by Stephen Lyons, and live voiceover, by Lucia Bedoya and Andrés Santacruz, and directed by José Teodoro.

Above still by Laura Barrón.

This film was made possible through the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts.