Film

Writer and Director:  Keith Behrman Reviewer:  Richard Maguire There’s no shortage of coming-out films, but they are still necessary, especially when there’s a revival of right-wing thinking across the world. However, Giant Little Ones, a Canadian film showing at BFI Flare, London’s LGBTQ+ film festival, is not a straightforward coming-out film. It could be argued that it’s not a coming-out ...

 Writer and Director: Doug Spearman Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Just before his film was shown at BFI Flare, London’s LGBTQ+ film festival, Doug Spearman confessed that he was surprised that the programmers had labelled it as a comedy. He thought he’d made a love story. But, ultimately, From Zero to I Love You is a combination of both these genres. In short, ...

Writer and Director:  Vincente Alves do Ó Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Portuguese film Sunburn really split the critics at its press screening this week at the BFI Flare Festival, London’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival. Some walked out while others kept glancing at their watches. After the film, those who had stayed were trying to extol Sunburn’s virtues to those who had threatened ...

Writers: Eileen Atkins with Chanya Button Director: Chanya Button Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Opening this year’s Flare, London’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival, is Vita and Virginia,a lavish period drama based on the love affair between Sackville- West and Woolf at the beginning of the 1920s. While Vita’s dogged pursuit of Woolf is dramatically reimagined, the film is dripping with so many ...

Writer: David Isaac, Jason Wingard Director: Jason Wingard Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Representations of inter-racial families on screen are still few and far between, and while this was much more common in the 1980s, the last 30-years has felt like a step backwards in terms of the image of the Britain we all really know. And where those experiences do exist, ...

Writer: Lisa Clair Director: Eugene Ma Reviewer: Adrienne Sowers Lisa Clair's new play The Making of King Kong, presented by Target Margin Theater, is an ambitious piece that examines racism, sexism, and classism through a darkly comedic portrayal of the creating of the film King Kong, directed by Merian C. Cooper and starring Fay Wray. Leaning into the problematic components of ...

Director: Carol Mansour Reviewer: Rich Jevons 12 Palestinian women discuss their lives before and after the diaspora, each connected by their love of embroidery. It is the story of their homeland and their accounts are intensely personal. The documentary begins with the bold statement: Those women who remained in their homeland were accused of non-existence. It was said to them: ...

Director: Eron Davidson & Ana Nogueira Narrator: Alice Walker Reviewer: Rich Jevons Ana Nogueira (a white South African) and Eron Davidson (a Jewish Israeli) make their debut documentary comparing the systems of apartheid in South Africa and Palestine. It makes parallels through using archive footage, interviews, and commentary and presents a convincing case for both the way injustice is being ...