The 37th Edition of the annual BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival is just about to kick-off at Southbank. Its one of QUEERGURU’S favorite queer film fests …… not just because it is the biggest in Europe but also because it’s in one of QUEERGURU’s global home bases.
BFI Flare is divided into three thematic programme strands: Hearts, Bodies and Minds and this year presents 28 world premieres (across features and shorts) with 58 features and 90 shorts from 41 countries. Asides from these live screenings there is also a selection of titles on BFI Player for UK-wide audiences, and to international audiences via Five Films for Freedom – now in its eighth year, in partnership with The British Council.
As usual, Queerguru’s London-based Contributing Editors Andrew Hebden and Ris Fatah will literally be camped out at BFI Flare for the duration to bring you the best reviews and news during the Festival: Meanwhile, our US-based Editor in Chief has scoured the program to give you our
TOP PICKS FOR FILMS NOT TO BE MISSED
A Place Of Our Own is a new feature film about the trials and tribulations of a couple of transgender women In Bhopal, India, and is a tragic reminder of how life for them has not progressed at all in society. The film, made by the Ektara Collective, an independent collaborative of filmmakers which makes films about and involving marginalized and disenfranchised communities, perfectly captures the lows ….. and the highs ….. of the women’s search for accommodation after their latest landlord has illegally evicted them.
BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND: In this feature film debut from Trevor Anderson, the highlight is the performance of newcomer Vaughan Murrae as Robin, in a nonbinary lead role. They play an American child that arrives in Edmonton, Canada to live with their smoker father. It is 1987, at school, Robin´s classmates wonder if he is a boy or a girl, if somebody asks, the question hangs in the air unanswered. No gendered pronouns are used to describe Robin in the film. We are allowed to watch the way the children relate with each other, and through Robin’s appreciation and reactions, develop empathy. The girls and boys are mean to Robin and Tony (Jhztyn Contado), the classmate from different roots, who, for obvious reasons, shows complicity with Robin, who likes to draw.
CHRISSY JUDY takes a poignant dive into what our friendships do for us – in particular those that involve our queer chosen families. Chrissy (Wyatt Fenner) and Judy (Todd Flaherty) are best friends and have been performing drag together for a while, mostly to rather disinterested audiences in New York City and Fire Island. They’ve both recently turned thirty years old and this milestone has triggered Chrissy into reevaluating his life and priorities. He decides to quit performing drag and move in with his boyfriend Shawn (Kiyon Spencer) who lives in Philadelphia, and transfer his day job there too.
P.S. Todd Flaherty filmed part of this his debut film in Provincetown MA the queer mecca on Cape Cod where we also summer so we filmed this interview with him https://queerguru.com/todd-flaherty-talks-about-his-directing-debut-chrissy-judy-that-everyone-else-is-now-talking-about-too/
Golden Delicious: The title of Jason Karman’s debut feature film is also the name of the family restaurant in the movie but it could almost pass as a critique too on this charming coming-of-age story. 17-year-old Jake (Cardi Wong) in his final High School Year who was being pressured by his father to take up basketball (which he loathed) and by his pushy girlfriend Valerie (Parmiss Sehat) to give up his virginity (which he had no intention of parting with). He had no idea what he wanted and he got even more confused when Aleks (Chris Carson) a hot jock who was openly gay, moved in next door. His drama is the real core of the story and we get the full anguish of a teenager so completely scared of his peers at school, and his family, as he tries so valiantly to come to terms with his true identity.
How To Tell a Secret : Over the past few years, QUEERGURU has sat through and reviewed 40 feature films that touch on HIV and/or AIDS. The pandemic of the 1980s and 1990s totally devastated the LGBTQ+ community and became the single largest factor in reshaping our future. As a queer media that prides itself in its mission to ensure that our history is shared as widely as possible, especially with queer youth, we devote coverage to these movies no matter how upsetting or disturbing they are …. although we will not include any that are exploitative and barely cover their disdain for our community.
Once in a blue moon, a feature film comes along that looks at the whole HIV phenomenon in a different context and is both inspiring and totally uplifting. How To Tell A Secret is one such film. It’s a compelling hybrid documentary that for once does not deal with the 80s and 90s but focuses on how millennials are dealing with their HIV diagnoses in contemporary Ireland.
P.S. Robbie Lawlor is one of the central characters in this excellent documentary HOW TO TELL A SECRET talks with Queerguru about making the movie
Little Richard : I Am Everything It’s completely impossible not to be swept away by filmmaker Lisa Cortes’s enthusiastic admiration for Little Richard the undisputed King of Rock’ n Roll (the title that Elvis mistakenly thought was his). Little R is a charismatic fireball whose roller coaster life on and off the stage had so many highs before it reverted back to being a convoluted mess again. He was a troubled genius who was so good at liberating other people by example but he could never liberate himself.
This long overdue documentary will make you fall in love with this unlikely Queer icon with the same passion as the likes of his major fans such as Mike Jagger, David Bowie,Paul McCartney etc
Totally Unmissable
The Blue Caftan is director Maryam Touzani’s beautifully poetic drama about the relationship between a closeted Moroccan tailor, Halim, (Saleh Bakri), his dying wife Mina (Lubna Azabal), and their gay male apprentice Youssef (Ayoub Missioui). Beautifully shot and lit by cinematographer Virginie Surdej, with excellent, very tender, performances by the three main actors, Touzani’s intimate, authentic film is paced to reflect the slow burn of the lives and relationships she is exploring. Her film is a great close-up study of the combinations of despondency, laughter, grief and joy life can entail. BEG, STEAL OR BORROW TO GET A TICKET FOR THIS ONE!
Who I Am Not: This debut from Romanian actress turned writer/director Tunde Skovran is a powerful story about gender dysphoria. It’s about being Female on the outside, male on the inside, and this intersex, devout Christian and South African beauty queen who can’t go on with her life until she comes to terms with what makes her a “real” woman.
Willem and Frieda: as queer history buffs we couldn’t resist this powerful new Channel 4 documentary. Reuniting filmmaker John Hay with presenter Stephen Fry. this story of two queer Dutch artists who showed such remarkable courage defying the Nazis during WW2. Willem had been out and proud since he was 17 and after his work in the Resistance had him facing a death sentence: his defiant final words were “Tell the world that homosexuals are not cowards”.
1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted a Culture” or how the Bible got it wrong about Homosexuality About six verses in the Bible contain the word homosexual, since 1946 when it appeared for the first time in the Revised Standard Version (RSV), due to the work and duty of a team of22 men translators.The RSV was not modified for 25 years and the texts were printed there in millions of copies of the Bible containing the word homosexual as a stigma against LGTB people.The misconception spread between readers, pastors, and religious fanatics.
As the film said , “if you mistranslate something, there is a power behind what you are putting out to other people”.Why does being a homosexual exclude anybody from the kingdom of God?The film states that it is because of an error, a wrong translation in the Bible.
BFI FLARE Film Fest will begin on 3/15 and end on
3/26. To see the whole program and book tickets
check out https://www.bfi.org.uk/
for full reviews on over 1500 queer films check out
www.queerguru.com and whilst you are there be
sure to subscribe to get all the latest raves and rants
on queer cinema ...best of all its FREE
BFI FLARE Film Fest will begin on 3/15 and end on
3/26. To see the whole program and book tickets
check out
