James R | On 19, Mar 2020

While cinema lovers are at home over the coming weeks, BFI Flare London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival is migrating to BFI Player to become BFI Flare at Home.

The festival, which was cancelled at the last minute this week due to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic, will now unfold online, with organisers giving festival bookers the opportunity to stream on BFI Player a number of LGBTIQ+ shorts and features that were due to screen at BFI Flare.

New work will include Levan Akin’s exquisite Georgian-set romance, the Canneswinner, And Then We Danced; Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau’s deliciously enigmatic chamber piece, Don’t Look Down and Daniel Karslake’s powerful documentary about four different LGBTIQ+ individuals who experience bruising encounters with organised religion, For They Know Not What They Do. Other titles are due to be confirmed in the coming days.

The BFI Flare at Home programme will be available at player.bfi.org.uk/flare, with most titles included within BFI Player’s £4.99 monthly subscription price (a 14-day trial is available). Anyone who had booked for BFI Flare will be given a special discounted subscription. Some of the new titles, however, will only be available to rent on the platform.

The new festival collection will be available from 20th to 29th March. Through its social media channels, BFI Flare will also be hosting live Q&A’s with filmmakers and will be bringing the party to living rooms around the UK with a curated closing night DJ set made available as a Spotify playlist, bringing the BFI Flare party vibe to house parties everywhere.

Tricia Tuttle, Director of Festivals, BFI says: “BFI Flare is a very special and long standing festival with a loyal and dedicated following so when the decision was made to cancel the ‘live’ festival the team knew that they wanted to share some elements of BFI Flare digitally to celebrate the spirit of BFI Flare and the incredible range of LGBTIQ+ stories from talented filmmakers being told in the UK and internationally. We want to bring some of the spirit of Flare into viewers’ living rooms.”

BFI Flare at Home will sit alongside BFI Flare’s Five Films For Freedom short films. That campaign, now in its sixth year, broadcasts five new LGBTIQ+ films to countries around the world and is made available in partnership with the British Council. The five shorts see filmmakers from Norway, Ireland, Brazil and the UK come together to explore compelling LGBTIQ+ realities, from navigating family relationships to the struggle for and celebration of sexual freedom.

BFI Flare’s Five Films for Freedom will be available on the British Council’s YouTube channel and on BFI Player for free until 29th March 2020.

BFI Player also includes a number of LGBTIQ+ films, including festival favourites from past years, as well as classic titles from such directors as Andrew Haigh, Campbell X, Celine Sciamma, Derek Jarman, Desiree Akhavan and Gregg Araki.

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