The 38th edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival set for 13 – 24 March at BFI Southbank and on BFI Player revealed its full program divided into three thematic program strands: Hearts, Bodies and Minds.

This year, the Festival presents 33 World Premieres (across features and shorts) with 57 features and 81 shorts from 41 countries.

BFI Flare opens with the European Premiere of Amrou Al Kadhi’s Layla, and closing night film is the World Premiere of docu-fiction Lady Like by director/producer Luke Willis.

Other World Premieres being presented in the Festival include We Forgot to Break Up – a pitch perfect romantic drama by Karen Knox featuring a trans musician caught in a love triangle with his bandmates as they rise to fame in this love letter to Toronto’s 2000s music scene. Two women hit it off in a lesbian bar, in Kat Rohrer’s What a Feeling – a romantic comedy with real heart that explores migration, class and sexuality in Austria. Several slices of the London queer community talk in depth about what it means to create a family, in What’s Safe, What’s Gross, What’s Selfish and What’s Stupid, a heartfelt DIY debut by Jasmine Johnson.

The European Premiere of the moving drama Close to You directed by Dominic Savage – based on a story by Savage and Elliot Page – screens as a Special Presentation, while BFI Flare also welcomes Page onstage at BFI Southbank for a Screen Talk to discuss his remarkable career. Page also serves as Executive Producer on the electrifying drama Backspot. Directed by D.W. Waterson, this punchy film is a blood, sweat and tears quest for athletic perfection with a phenomenal central performance from Reservation Dogs’ Devery Jacobs.

Also included as a Special Presentation is Levan Akin’s fourth feature Crossing, a compelling drama which charts the unlikely alliance forged between two protagonists as they hit the road trying to trace a young trans woman who has vanished in Istanbul.

BFI Flare will present the World Premiere of Kip Andersen and Chris O’ Connell’s upbeat documentary, Join the Club, exploring the little known story of how the AIDS crisis in San Francisco led to marijuana legislation in America. An act of active resistance, and a fight for LGBTQ+ rights led by Dennis Peron, a pot dealer who outsmarted the police to alleviate the physical and mental suffering of AIDS patients.

Sam Sahid’s sumptuously made documentary, Hidden Master: The Legacy of George Platt Lynes, celebrates the sensuous images of George Platt Lynes (1907-55), a renowned celebrity portraitist and fashion photographer who was also the creator of a secret archive of male nude photography. Shahid’s beautiful film is an eye-opening delight that reveals the talents of an exceptional gay artist.

BFI Flare presents the World Premiere of Lesvia, Tzeli Hadjidimitriou’s initimate documentary, a blissfully nostalgic yet impressively complex insight into the hidden stories of Lesbos, birthplace of Sappho and meeting place for lesbians since the 1970s. From the unique vantage point of being a lesbian from Lesbos herself, Hadjidimitriou expertly balances the perspectives of the women looking for a place to connect and relax alongside the wary locals they often encounter.

The program pays tribute to queer musical icons with two documentaries. Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero follows Lil Nas X, behind his witty and occasionally controversial online presence, as he embarks on his first live tour in a world where being an openly gay Black rapper still feels like a rarity by Carlos López Estrada. By Stuart Pollit, Don’t Ever Stop is the amazing story of legendary DJ and record producer Tony de Vit, who changed many lives with his music as he kept the ’90s generation dancing through the worst years of the AIDS epidemic.

Bfi Flare: London Lgbtqia+ Film Festival, 2024 Full Program

BFI Flare is divided into three thematic strands: HEARTS, BODIES and MINDS. The full program is detailed below.

HEARTS

HEARTS includes films about love, romance and friendship. The films screening in HEARTS are:

• ISLA’S WAY – Meet Isla Roberts: great-grandmother, carriage driver, handywoman. The
  indomitable spirit of the cheeky octogenarian is the beating heart of this delightful and inspiring ode to the visibility of older women.
• OUR SON – Billy Porter and Luke Evans star as a couple on the brink of divorce, fighting over custody of their eight-year-old son.
• SINCE THE LAST TIME WE MET – Victor and David’s story takes us on a familiar journey of loving and losing. But 15 years later they get a second chance at love, the result is a fresh and entertaining drama of the heart.
• SPLIT – In this sensual web series, a stuntwoman embarks on her first lesbian relationship when she falls for the actor she’s working with. With an incredible cast, including Alma Jodorowsky, Jehnny Beth, Ralph Amoussou and Pauline Chalamet, SPLIT is a bold and intelligent exploration of sex, relationships and intimacy.
• DOPAMINE CRASH – A collection of short films about the messiness of break-ups. Coming off the love high is painful, although it may be for the best
• DRAWN THIS WAY – The love and craft that goes into animation shines through in this collection of short films, which aim to engage, educate – and even titillate – audiences about queer lives.
• QUEER/PLATONIC – An ode to joys and tribulations of queer friendships and platonic intimacies – their intensity, fluidity and subversiveness
• TENDER HEARTED: SHORTS FROM THE UK & IRELAND – This selection of shorts seeks to remind us of the radical possibilities of opening up our hearts to life, love and healing

Also screening in HEARTS are: ALIGNED, CHASING CHASING AMY, LESVIA, PINE CONE, SOLIDS BY THE SEASHORE, SUMMER SOLSTICE, UNICORNS, WHAT A FEELING, WHAT’S SAFE, WHAT’S GROSS, WHAT’S SELFISH AND WHAT’S STUPID, WHO’LL STOP THE RAIN, WOMAN OF….

BODIES

BODIES includes stories of sex, identity and transformation. The films screening in BODIES are:

• LIFE IS NOT A COMPETITION, BUT I’M WINNING – In this beautifully constructed, innovative documentary, a collective of queer athletes unearth deep histories of pioneering sportspeople who were excluded from the podium.
• CONNECT/DISCONNECT – This selection of shorts looks at how the power of attraction can surprise and unsettle, whether it’s the first few seconds of an encounter or something longer.
• COSMIC DREAMS: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS – Techno-sexual deviants, pixelated dolphins and sensuous goddesses all reside in this fantastical queer multiverse of short film.
• PLEASURE ME – Short films exploring queer sex and desire in varied forms. There is beauty and frustration, joy and heartbreak. The pleasure is endless – at least, for some.
• SEX IS COMEDY: the revolution of intimacy co-ordinators – A fascinating insight into the role of the intimacy co-ordinator, told through behind-the-scenes access to new queer French TV show Split.
• A TASTE OF SPAIN – From the bullring to the boxing ring, and the joys of youth to the vulnerability of old age, this selection of cinematic delights showcases short filmmakers from Spain.
• SILVER HAZE – Reeling from the trauma of her difficult childhood, a 23-year-old burns survivor finds some healing through her first lesbian relationship.
• SLOW – Dovydas and Elena form a strong connection, but the dynamic of their relationship changes when Dovydas reveals that he is asexual.
• TOPS – It’s the hilarious trans 1990s breakfast TV show you didn’t know you wanted. Amy Pennington taps into the spirit of MTV and The Big Breakfast in this comic series that asks, ‘what top did you want to wear after top surgery?’

Also screening in BODIES are BACKSPOT, DEPARTING SENIORS, I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU ARE, JOIN THE CLUB, THE SUMMER WITH CARMEN, RILEY, WE ARE PERFECT

MINDS

MINDS features reflections on art, politics and community. The films screening in MINDS are:

• CALLS FROM MOSCOW – Four Cuban exiles find themselves in Moscow one day before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
• METHODS FOR FACING A HOSTILE WORLD – These shorts show people using all the resources of their hearts, minds and bodies to defend what they love.
• ORLANDO, MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY – Nearly a century after Orlando was published, Paul B. Preciado unpacks the meaning and importance for trans people of Virginia Woolf’s classic novel.
• SAY WHAT YOU MEAN – It is really hard to speak your truth to a loved one, or to strangers. Yet all the people in these short films do, in their own time and way.
• STATE OF THE ART – Gender-fluid, transgender and non-binary artists draw on dance, filmmaking and literature in these short tales of cathartic communication and exigent expression, contemplating art as a force to be reckoned with.

Also screening in MINDS are BALDIGA – UNLOCKED HEART, CODE OF FEAR, COMMITMENT TO LIFE, DAYS OF HAPPINESS, DESIRE LINES, DON’T EVER STOP, HEAVY SNOW, HIDDEN MASTER: THE LEGACY OF GEORGE PLATT LYNES, INDIAS 1ST BEST TRANS MODEL AGENCY, LIL NAS X: LONG LIVE MONTERO, LOVE LIES BLEEDING, MERCHANY IVORY, REAS, STORIES OF OUR LIVES, STUDIO ONE FOREVER, TOLL, UNSPOKEN, WE FORGOT TO BREAK UP, WE WERE DANGEROUS, YOU PROMISED ME THE SEA.