The Journey of Identity
Where each story begins: finding pole, and the self it made room for.
Portfolio · Case study
Beyond the Binary
Freedom in Movement
A short documentary about non-binary pole dancers, and how movement helped them shape who they are. Made in AIT’s Documentary Lab.
Documentary202310 minutesSydney Pole
- Year
- 2023
- Format
- Short documentary, 10 minutes
- Made for
- AIT Documentary Lab
- Augusto’s role
- Director, co-editor and one of the dancers on screen
- Filmed at
- Sydney Pole
- Approach
- Participatory and observational
- Structure
- Three chapters
The idea
One question at the heart of it: how did pole help you shape your identity?
The idea
Breaking barriers, embracing authenticity
Beyond the Binary grew out of Augusto’s own story: pole, and a non-binary instructor, helped them accept their own non-binary identity. The film asks three non-binary pole dancers, Augusto among them, how pole helped them become who they are.
Their answers, and their movement, carry the film. Its tagline sums it up: breaking barriers, embracing authenticity and defying gender norms through the art of pole dancing.
Structure
Three chapters
The Struggles & Emotions
The hard parts, told honestly, on and off the pole.
A Future of Hope
Looking ahead, to spaces where everyone can move freely.
Process
How we made it
The question
The approach
The shoot
The edit
FinishingOne question for every dancer
Every interview was built around one question: how did pole help you shape your identity? Augusto, as director, answered it on camera too.
Participatory and observational
Sit-down interviews give the dancers their own voice, and observational footage of classes and training shows that voice in motion.
Two cameras at Sydney Pole
Peter Liszka produced and shot camera one, Aashish Rai shot camera two and Dipesh Baraili recorded sound. We filmed interviews, classes and training at Sydney Pole, with the support of the studio’s team.
From fifteen minutes to ten
Peter Liszka and Augusto cut more than fifteen minutes of story down to ten, in a five-act structure shown on screen as three chapters.
Neon, flares and colour
A colour grade and LUTs give the studio its night-time glow, and lens flares and a neon title built in After Effects echo the studio’s own neon signs.
Credits
Who made it
- Director
- Augusto Alves
- Producer and camera 1
- Peter Liszka
- Camera 2
- Aashish Rai
- Sound
- Dipesh Baraili
- Editors
- Peter Liszka and Augusto Alves
- Location
- Sydney Pole
Some performance footage in the film was shared by the dancers and is not by GusPalette.
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