NOW BOOKING: BFI Flare 2021 (17 to 28 MAR)

It’s great to see London’s legendary BFI Flare LGBTIQ+ Film Festival zooming back into focus as we all plan our coming out of lockdown. Here’s our pick of this year’s online event.

By RADIANT CIRCUS // Twitter @radiantcircus | Instagram @radiantcircus

Following announcements that BFI Flare LGBTIQ+ Film Festival (17 to 28 MAR 2021) will be an entirely online affair, the team launched their full programme a little earlier this week. Booking opens today for BFI Members (26 FEB) and a little later for everyone else (02 MAR).

Having devoured the programme in full, there are many ups and one, inevitable, down (more of that in a bit). The main ‘up’ is of course that the festival is happening at all after last year’s cancellation and the ongoing uncertainty of the global pandemic. The BFI crew has put together a strong programme of some 26 features and loads of FREE shorts that can be seen from anywhere in the UK for the duration of the festival. This is an approach we really like, feeling that some of the ‘time-limited’ 48hr viewing windows we’ve seen in other virtual festivals force audiences into venue-style behaviour without recognising the limitations caused by the enduring chaos of COVID-19. So, bravo to the BFI.

Following their usual format, the Flare programme is broken down into three main strands (HEARTS, BODIES, and MINDS, each with 8 or 9 premieres). The programmes of FREE shorts are gathered in their own thematic groups (choose from ‘Beginnings & Endings’, ‘For The Record’, ‘Hearts’ Desires’, ‘Into The Unknown’, ‘Queer As In Question Everything’, ‘Shapes We Make, Spaces We Take’ and, ‘Striving To Be Seen’). The crop of shorts offers considerable bounty. In yet more good news, there will be FREE ‘meet the maker’ content appearing on the BFI’s YouTube and Facebook channels (…if anyone still uses those? ;-). Stay tuned for announcements as the main event unfolds.

The only downside to all this joy is that the features programme feels, inevitably, like a reduced selection from the overflowing Flare feasts we are used to. And the main casualty of all this is that there are few ‘downlist’, experimental, genre-bending oddities for those of us who class ourselves as cinematic bottom feeders (we tend to browse festival brochures for the kind of ‘undiscovered gems’ that only their crowdfunder communities could love…). It seems churlish to bemoan this point, but it’s important to keep a grip on what happens to culture when it gets closed down; it looses some of its raw, spikier edges. None of this is BFI’s fault and it isn’t just about narrower choice: films might be immutable documents, but it’s the live/shared audience experience that brings out their queer character.

Looking ahead then, we have booked into a series of 5 features that we are genuinely excited to see. And you better believe it, we will be binging those FREE shorts like our summers depend on them. Scroll down for our pick of the programme then head to BFI Flare to get booking (from today 26 FEB for BFI members and from 02 MAR for the general public). Tickets cost £10 per feature (£8 for members) and there’s a festival pass for £90/£70 which gives you 10 films for the price of 9. Films are available for the whole festival, subject to booking limits. You have 4hrs to complete a film after you’ve started watching it.

BFI Flare 2021 screens online from 17 to 28 MAR.

> If you can’t wait until the festival itself, you can still dip your wick into a substantial queer stream on BFI Player. Titles include END OF THE CENTURY (d. Lucio Castro, 2019), STUD LIFE (d. Campbell X, 2012), GIRLS LOST (d. Alexandra-Therese Leining, 2015), WEEKEND (d. Andrew Haigh, 2011), DRESSED AS A GIRL (d. Colin Rothbart, 2015), and a brace of RADIANT CIRCUS favourites, CARAVAGGIO (d. Derek Jarman, 1986) and TOMBOY (d. Céline Sciamma, 2011). You will need a BFI Player subscription to view.

HEARTS: Films about love, romance and friendship.

BODIES: Stories of sex, identity and transformation.

MINDS: Reflections on art, politics and community.

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*THE SMALL PRINT: Opinions author’s own. // As accurate as we could make it. Apologies for any errors. Updates & corrections will be made to the online version only. // Event dates/times/formats are subject to change by the venue/organiser. Events may already be sold out at the time of posting, so please click quickly. // We try to list as many original format screenings as we can (8 to 70MM), but sometimes formats change due to age of the print, availability, logistics etc, so please check ahead with your venue if the format is your thing. // All images are used in the spirit of fair use for reporting & review – no ownership is implied or intended / unless otherwise credited to RADIANT CIRCUS as the original rights holder. We will remove any images immediately upon request – just get in touch. // We don’t filter our listings by age/certification: all readers & subscribers should therefore be 18+. // Finally, we always try to follow The Carny Code by “not screwing up anyone else’s game”, but everyone can make mistakes… If something does go wrong, we will always do our best to put it right. //.