Five more films to see before BFI Flare closes

The 37th edition of BFI Flare LGBTQIA+ Film Festival has flown by in a whirl of queer cinematic excellence.

Despite the festival ending on Sunday (26 March), there is still plenty to see and do.

Here are five films we recommend seeing over the next few days. All screenings will take place at BFI Southbank.

Wolf and Dog

São Miguel is the largest island in the Azores archipelago. Ana and Luís have grown up there and are used to its small, religious community, finding respite in a local gay bar. But when the return of Ana’s old friend Cloé sparks an awakening in her, and Luís’s queerness and gender-fluidity butts heads with his religious upbringing, their once intimate home becomes stifling. What are Ana and Luís to do – conform or flee with the hope of finding their place in the wider world? The fiction feature debut from documentarian Cláudia Varejão, Wolf and Dog is a sumptuously shot and quietly beautiful portrait of queerness and tradition, filmed in collaboration with local, non-professional actors.

Wolf and Dog is playing in NFT 1 on Friday 24 March at 3pm. Tickets are available here.

Bread and Salt

Tymek studies piano at the Warsaw Academy of Music. On returning home for the summer, he hangs out with his brother and friends, flirts with girls, and plays the piano while the others rap and smoke. The main hang-out place is a new kebab bar in town. The group returns day after day, ordering kebabs and causing trouble with the Arab staff, who have only recently arrived in Poland. Tymek tries to befriend one of the employees, Yousef. But hostility and racism are insidious, and violence looms large. Damian Kocur’s impressive feature debut is inspired by true events, performed by non-professional actors, and was awarded the Special Jury Prize in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival.

Tickets are still available for screenings on Friday 24 March at 6pm in NFT 3 and on Sunday 26 March at 1:15 in NFT 1.

Afeminadas

Safira O’Hara, Khryz Amusa, Chandelly Kidman, Hellena Borgyz, and Jefferson Lemons perform in five different cities across Brazil. In their lives and work they reveal a fascinating variety of experiences and performance styles. Much of this film’s pleasure lies in the captivating personalities of these diverse performers, from the lip-synching drag queen (‘Bricklayer by day, drag queen by night!’) and flamboyant dancer to a once super-macho who changed his style to become a contemporary dance hero. The subjects gradually reveal their stories, their heartaches and successes, offering a rare insight into unconventional lives lived in the public eye and embracing a non-traditional effeminacy that goes beyond the binary. Afeminadas is a refreshing antidote to macho culture.

Afeminadas is screening on Thursday 23 March at 6:10pm in NFT 2 and on Saturday 25 March 2023 at 8:55pm in NFT3

Little Richard: I Am Everything

Whether it’s from his infectious ‘woooo’s, a legendary impression on RuPaul’s Drag Race, or the many musicians, Black and white, that he’s influenced, everybody knows a little something about Little Richard. But underneath the makeup and the flamboyant personality, who was the real Richard Wayne Penniman? Director Lisa Cortés and a host of famous faces including John Waters, Billy Porter, and Elton John try to find the man behind the self-created myth a pioneer for Blackness and queerness in music who never got his dues, but also someone who was at war with his sexuality and religion throughout his life. Riotous, but also revealing, Little Richard: I Am Everything is the perfect portrait of an icon.

Little Richard: I Am Everything is screening on Sunday 26 March as part of BFI Flare’s ‘Best of Fest’ at 12:45 in NFT 2. Get tickets here.

PEAFOWL

Shin (Hae-jun) is one of the best waackers – a form of voguing that’s heavy on pose. And the dance battle final is a high-stakes game. If she wins, the jackpot will cover her gender affirming surgery. But Shin also has other challenges to face. With her estranged father having recently died, it falls to her as the only child to perform the traditional dance ritual at his memorial. That means making an unwelcome journey back to her rural roots. However, Shin is accompanied by a spirit guide in the form of a peacock. Defiantly facing down all opposition with coolness and confidence, staying true to herself yet also shedding some of her sharper armour, Shin embarks on a winding path to enlightenment and soon finds the whole village going along for the ride.

PEAFOWL is screening on Sunday 26 March as part of BFI Flare’s ‘Best of Fest’ at 5:10pm in NFT 2. Get tickets here.

5 Films for Freedom

Five Films for Freedom is a global, online short film programme in support of LGBTQIA+ rights. It is staged in partnership with BFI Flare.

Every year audiences are invited to watch the five films online in solidarity with LGBTQIA+ communities where freedom and equal rights are limited. People are also encouraged to spread the word using the hashtag #FiveFilmsForFreedom.

The films explore subjects such as violence and security, love across borders, and shifting identities. The 2023 films are:

All I Know by Obinna Robert Onyeri (Nigeria/USA)

Butch Up! by Yu-jin Lee (South Korea)

Eating Papaw on the Seashore by Rae Wiltshire and Nickose Layne (Guyana)

Just Johnny by Terry Loane (UK – Northern Ireland)

Buffer Zone by Savvas Stavrou (UK/Cyprus)

You can view the films on the British Council Arts YouTube channel. The films are also available through other channels in countries with access restrictions.

You can see the full BFI Flare programme here.