For most film festivals queer cinema is either intertwined with the overall line up or given its own category, but few dedicate their lineup entirely to LGBTQIA+ cinema. One festival which does is the BFI Flare festival in London, which annually offers a wide variety of independent films and those already highly accoladed in the industry, explicitly platforming queer cinema. As BFI Flare gears up for its 11th year it brings to the capital a lineup filled with energy, political expression and love in all its forms, taking the community beyond shallow representation into a rich tapestry of queer experience through international cinema.
I was lucky enough to catch Viet and Nam at LFF and I wish this achingly beautiful film wasn’t hovering below the radar of most film festival attendees. Following two young coal miners who face the possible collapse of cave systems with each passing day, the young men’s relationship blooms as they trace their lineage through a nation struck by grief, hoping an understanding of collective past will light the way for their future.
Viet and Nam, courtesy of Pyramide International
Much like Viet and Nam, many of BFI Flare’s titles already have a number of festival garlands adorning their film posters. Really Happy Someday, which debuted at Toronto International Film Festival, follows a trans masc singer, shunned by his agent post transition, and fighting for a career in the music industry. Although it is not a musical, J Stevens’ dedication to the trans community’s rightful place in the scene is shown through the huge array of trans artists featured on Really Happy Someday’s original score.
Love and sex are prominent themes in queer identity, centred above all else mainly to mainstream media’s focus on romance and the ongoing cliche of the homosexual tragic romance film. But as BFI Flare annually dedicates its line up to queerness, the nuances of identity are shown, with many of the films of the festival looking beyond sexual passion to the power of queer friendships and the inherent necessity of political stance. Tensions arise in smalltown South Korea when lesbian bar-owner decides to run for Mayor in Manok, Canadian entry Lakeview follows a bisexual divorcee as she reconnects with her friends and her youth, while Shatara Michelle Ford’s Dreams in Nightmares, is a kinetic road trip film exploring black queer friendship.
Dreams in Nightmares, courtesy of Memento International
Narrative cinema may be at the forefront, but there are also a great number of vibrant documentaries on offer at BFI Flare. Including a memoir of the outrageous electroclash musician Peaches in Peaches goes Bananas, and two documentaries exploring queer nightlife, How To Live reporting from Nairobi’s ballroom scene and Truth or Dare depicting Berlin’s public and private sex positive world. Alongside a host of new releases, the BFI brings the recently restored Winter Kept Us Warm (1965) to a modern audience. Known best as Canada’s first gay film, set in the snow-covered campus of the University of Toronto, a senior and junior college student’s playful friendship turns into romance and young lovers struggle for independence.
Queer cinema is so often limited to Hollywood’s cis, monogamous narratives in which romance and prejudice are its dominating themes. Of course bigotry plays a role in the lives of the community but in dedicating itself entirely to LGBTQIA+ cinema, BFI Flare offers an expansive exploration of the many vital facets of queer experience far beyond its denouncers.
BFI Flare Film Festival runs from 19 - 30 March in London
How to Live, courtesy of Voire Verite Studio
-
Hyundai is the latest car company to get into robotics: meet the Mobile Eccentric DroidThe MobED is a new product from Hyundai’s Robotics LAB, pitched at last-mile delivery and industrial applications
-
A cubist house rises in Mexico City, its concrete volumes providing a bold urban refugeCasa Ailes, a cubist house by Jaime Guzmán Creative Group, is rich in architectural expression that mimics the dramatic and inviting nature of a museum
-
David/Nicolas raise contemporary craft to a canter at this new Abu Dhabi riding schoolThe Lebanese design duo draw on Emirati equestrian heritage to create two contemporary spaces for ADREA, a new school of classical horsemanship
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt’s wet, windy and wintry and, this week, the Wallpaper* team craved moments of escape. We found it in memories of the Mediterranean, flavours of Mexico, and immersions in the worlds of music and art
-
Each mundane object tells a story at Pace’s tribute to the everydayIn a group exhibition, ‘Monument to the Unimportant’, artists give the seemingly insignificant – from discarded clothes to weeds in cracks – a longer look
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekThis week, the Wallpaper* team had its finger on the pulse of architecture, interiors and fashion – while also scooping the latest on the Radiohead reunion and London’s buzziest pizza
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt’s been a week of escapism: daydreams of Ghana sparked by lively local projects, glimpses of Tokyo on nostalgic film rolls, and a charming foray into the heart of Christmas as the festive season kicks off in earnest
-
Wes Anderson at the Design Museum celebrates an obsessive attention to detail‘Wes Anderson: The Archives’ pays tribute to the American film director’s career – expect props and puppets aplenty in this comprehensive London retrospective
-
Meet Eva Helene Pade, the emerging artist redefining figurative paintingPade’s dreamlike figures in a crowd are currently on show at Thaddaeus Ropac London; she tells us about her need ‘to capture movements especially’
-
David Shrigley is quite literally asking for money for old rope (£1 million, to be precise)The Turner Prize-nominated artist has filled a London gallery with ten tonnes of discarded rope, priced at £1 million, slyly questioning the arbitrariness of artistic value
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekThe rain is falling, the nights are closing in, and it’s still a bit too early to get excited for Christmas, but this week, the Wallpaper* team brought warmth to the gloom with cosy interiors, good books, and a Hebridean dram
