BFI Flare: London LGBTQ Film Festival 2019 – Special Presentations round-up
The annual film festival is kick-starting this Thursday (March 21)
By Steve Brown
With just days before London’s annual LGBTQ film festival starts, the excitement is building!
Each year, BFI Flare gets better and better and this year is no exception. With the festival split into three categories – Minds, Bodies and Hearts – there will be more than 50 feature films, 100 shorts and a range of other events guest appearances and workshops.
This Thursday (March 21) marks the start of the festival and with an exceptional line-up, it’s hard to narrow down some of our favourites.
As always, the festival starts with the opening night gala and to mark the 33rd edition of the annual LGBTQ film festival, Chanya Button’s new movie, Vita & Virginia, will open the 10-day film festival at BFI Southbank.
Adapted from Dame Eileen Atkins’ play of the same name, the film tells the true story of the passionate relationship between literary trailblazer Virginia Woolf (Elizabeth Debicki), and the enigmatic aristocrat Vita Sackville-West (Gemma Arterton).
When their paths cross, the magnetic Vita decides the beguiling, stubborn and gifted Virginia will be her next conquest, no matter the cost.
The film – which also stars Isabella Rossellini, Rupert Penry-Jones and Peter Ferdinando – follows their encounters which inspired Woolf’s famous novel ‘Orlando’ and is a love story about two women who smashed through social barriers to find solace in their forbidden connection.
Other special presentations include the documentary about gay porn star Jonathan Agassi and Tomer Heymann’s documentary, Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life, paints a portrait of a young man wrestling with loneliness, addiction and childhood traumas.
The documentary – which will be screened on March 22 and 23 – follows Agassi’s meteoric rise to fame and becoming one of the most popular adult superstars in the business.
But the real man and the performer are two very differnet entities and his professional highs are countered by his crushing personal lows.
The festival will close on March 31 with the European Premiere of Justin Kelly’s JT LEROY. Starring Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart, the film is adapted from Savannah Knoop’s memoir ‘Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT LeRoy’.
It follows the captivating real-life story of the most compelling literary ‘hoax’ and also stars Diana Kruger and Jim Sturgess.
Tickets are quickly running out for all the screenings and workshops! For any tickets please visit here.