The Stroll opens 37th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival running till March 26th – take a look at the highlights

The 37th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival opens tonight with Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s outstanding The Stroll which received its world premiere in the US Documentary Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, going on the win that section’s Special Jury Award for Clarity of Vision. It tells the collective history of the transgender... Continue Reading →

March 15, 2023 1

BFI Flare made a roaring return with first in-person fest in 3 years

The 36th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival came to a close last weekend with the world premiere of Kevin Hegge’s vibrant and immersive celebration of the creative spirit of the New Romantics, Tramps! The high-spirited, sold out event, attended by Hegge and many of the film's subjects, marked the end of a thrilling edition... Continue Reading →

April 4, 2022 3

Outfest LA 2021 Film Review: Rebel Dykes ★★★★★

Harri Shanahan and Sian Williams' feature documentary Rebel Dykes, which receives its Los Angeles premiere at Outfest LA 2021 on Saturday August 14th (also screening virtually August 15th-17th), is a rousing, celebratory, and considered examination of London's rebel dyke subculture of the 1980s and its legacy. The film's punky, DIY aesthetic captures the anarchic spirit... Continue Reading →

August 10, 2021 0

BFI Flare 2021 Film Review: Rebel Dykes ★★★★★

UPDATE: Rebel Dykes opens in UK cinemas and is released on digital Friday November 26th 2021. Harri Shanahan and Sian Williams' feature documentary Rebel Dykes, which receives its world premiere as part of the virtual 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival running March 17th to 28th and its Australian premiere at the Melbourne Queer... Continue Reading →

March 17, 2021 4

BFI Flare 2021 Film Review: AIDS DIVA The Legend of Connie Norman ★★★1/2

With an overview of the ACT UP story having been told in compelling and detailed documentaries such as Jim Hubbard's United in Anger: A History of ACT UP and David France's How to Survive a Plague, it's pleasing to now see significant members being focused on individually, such as trans trailblazer Connie Norman, a broadcaster,... Continue Reading →

March 16, 2021 1

Film Review: Mama Gloria ★★★★

Luchina Fisher’s feature documentary Mama Gloria, currently making its New York premiere at the virtual 11th annual Athena Film Festival at Barnard College until March 14th and receiving its international premiere as part of the UK-wide 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival starting next week, tells the captivating life story of Chicago's septuagenarian Black... Continue Reading →

March 11, 2021 1

BFI Flare 2021 Film Review: Rūrangi ★★★★1/2

Often films with a message are so busy driving that message home that they become one-note. Rūrangi, which plays this month's virtual 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival, doesn’t fall into that trap. By placing this transgender homecoming tale into a broader, intersectional context of identity—gender, sexual, cultural—it rises above them to become a... Continue Reading →

March 9, 2021 0

BFI Flare 2021 Film Review: Dramarama ★★★★

Jonathan Wysocki’s debut feature Dramarama, part of this year's virtual BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival, is about the last summer after high school, after the curtain has fallen in the high school auditorium for the last time, just before the cast is about to split up and head their separate ways, everyone going off... Continue Reading →

March 9, 2021 0

BFI Flare 2021 Review: The Obituary of Tunde Johnson ★★★★1/2

Tunde Johnson is a normal 17 year old boy. He’s Black; he’s gay; he loves his parents; and he’s been sleeping with the hottest guy in school, even though he’s dating Tunde’s best friend. Oh, and, no matter what he does, every night Tunde is murdered by the Los Angeles Police Department. And then he... Continue Reading →

March 9, 2021 0

BFI Flare 2021 Film Review: Jump, Darling ★★★1/2

Jump, Darling, the feature debut of writer-director Philip J. Connell, receives its international premiere at the 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival. On the surface, the tale of a young gay man escaping the big city to live with his grandmother in the countryside, reeks of every fish-out-of-water story ever conceived. The beauty of... Continue Reading →

March 3, 2021 2