Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s Sundance award-winning documentary The Stroll will open and its Hannes Hirsch’s debut feature Drifter will close the 37th edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival taking place March 15th – 26th, 2023. In addition, Tünde Skovrán’s intimate documentary Who I Am Not will have its UK Premiere as the Centrepiece Presentation Screening.
The International Premiere of Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker’s The Stroll, which won the U.S Documentary Special Jury Award: Clarity of Vision at last month’s Sundance Film Festival, opens the Festival on Wednesday 15th March. This stirring and deeply personal film tells the history of New York City’s Meatpacking District from the point of view of the trans women of color who lived and worked there. Comprised of intimate narration from Lovell, who worked “The Stroll” for a decade, she reunites with her sisters to recount the violence, policing, homelessness, and gentrification they overcame to build a movement for transgender rights.
Zackary Drucker, The Stroll director said, “In the words of one of our legendary film subjects Ceyenne Doroshow, “I’m a Black, trans, international Whore baby” — The Stroll is going international! We are thrilled and honored to premiere The Stroll to UK audiences at the beloved BFI Flare festival.”
The Closing Night gala on Saturday 25th March is the UK Premiere of Hannes Hirsch’s debut feature Drifter, a coming-of-age story with a difference. Arriving fresh from its World Premiere at Berlin, the film tells the story of 22-year-old Moritz, who is excited to be moving to Berlin with his boyfriend. But when the relationship quickly falls apart, he begins an odyssey of new relationships in a city full of possibilities, discovering the joys of sexual abandon and with each new encounter – straight, gay and a flirtation with S&M – he understands more of himself and how to fulfil people’s desires. It’s a revelatory portrait of an individual becoming sexually and emotionally confident, who learns valuable lessons about friendship, sex and the thrill of living in the moment. Drifter is a refreshing and authentic look at queer lives, imbued with the excitement of this generation’s ways of being.
Hannes Hirsch, Drifter director said, “I’m thrilled and proud that my debut film Drifter will be shown as the closing film at BFI Flare. The film is my personal love-letter to Berlin’s queer scene, but it was also only possible with the broad support from the community. After its world premiere at Berlinale, I am honoured to present Drifter at the prestigious BFI Flare to the community.”
Tünde Skovrán’s documentary Who I Am Not will receive its UK Premiere as the Flare Centrepiece Presentation Screening on Tuesday 21st March. The film is an intimate portrait of the lives of two intersex South Africans and the challenges they face navigating binary sex and gender systems. The documentary focuses on beauty queen Sharon-Rose Khumalo and intersex rights activist Dimakatso Sebidi as we witness the various medical, societal and personal challenges they face. Deeply moving and candid, we see the two struggle to accept themselves in a world that views them as anomalies. The film raises questions about sex and gender identity, and who gets to define it.
Tünde Skovrán, Who I Am Not director said, “We are thrilled to have our UK premiere at BFI Flare! What better home for a film that breaks the intersex taboo? Through a personal and intimate exploration of truth, faith, and belonging, Who I Am Not takes a close look at the struggle of living in a male-female world, when you are born in-between, and gives a voice to the long ignored and mostly silent two percent of the world’s population: the intersex community.”