What to see at BFI Flare film festival, 'a rich tapestry of queer experience'

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.

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.

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

whatson.bfi.org.uk