21/02/2017 - Signature Move to close London LGBT festival

The 31^st edition of BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival (16-26 March) will open with the world premiere of Fergus O’Brien’s Against the Law (UK) and will close with the international premiere of Jennifer Reeder’s Signature Move (US). The Centrepiece Screening is the European premiere of Clyde Petersen’s Torrey Pines (US), accompanied by a live score from director his Queercore band, Your Heart Breaks. This year’s Special Presentations are both world premieres – writer Jacquie Lawrence’s UK web series, Different for Girls, directed by Campbell X and Vincent Gagliostro’s After Louie. 

2017 sees the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act which decriminalised private homosexual acts in England and Wales. The festival marks this anniversary in a number of ways, including ‘Fifty Years of Queer History through the Moving Image and Beyond’ – an afternoon of illustrated talks, screenings and storytelling with a range of historians, archivists and individuals who lived through the period; and the world premiere of Ashley Joiner’s Pride (UK) that details the history of the Pride celebrations. In all, the festival will present over 50 features, more than 100 shorts and a range of special events.

The BFI is also marking the 50th anniversary with a new season of screenings and events in July and August. ‘Gross Indecency’ will explore the pioneering and sometimes problematic depictions of LGBT life in British film and TV in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Tricia Tuttle, BFI deputy head of festivals said “If last year’s 30th Anniversary of the festival was time for reflection on just how far we’ve come, many world events in the 12 months since have reminded us just how vital this event still is. And what a programme we have to offer this year – it’s vibrant, politically engaged, playful, stirring – and with a number of world, international and European premieres on offer, BFI Flare is absolutely the place to see the best new LGBT cinema first.”