BFI Flare 2020 - Special Presentations announced ahead of full programme launch

As we gear up for the full programme launch of the 34th BFI Flare LGBTQ+ Film Festival later this month. The folks at BFI have kindly whet our collective appetite by announcing this years Headline Galas and Centrepiece Screening. With the films selected once again highlighting the diverse content Flare brings to London each year. Including two first time features, a world premiere and an exploration of transgender representation in TV and film.

The Festival opens on the 18th March with the World Premiere of Matt Fifer and Kieran Mulcare’s CICADA. A drama set in New York City in 2013 at the height of the Sandusky trial. Fifer’s debut picture follows the meeting and subsequent relationship of Ben (Matt Fifer) and Sam (Sheldon D. Brown). Their union caught up in the memories of a childhood trauma, brought to the surface as the media and public face the shocking ghosts of the past.

CICADA (Directed By: Matt Fifer and Kieran Mulcare)

This years Centrepiece Screening on the 26th March is Sam Feder’s Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen. An unprecedented and eye-opening look at transgender representation in film and television. Revealing how Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures our deepest anxieties about gender. While leading trans thinkers and creatives share their reactions and thoughts. From Laverne Cox to Yance Ford and Chaz Bono.

A still from Disclosure: Trans Lives On Screen by Sam Feder, an official selection of the Documentary Premieres program at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Finally Flare closes on Saturday 28^th March with Olivier Award-winning playwright and theatre director Jessica Swale’s feature debut. Summerland, set in Kent during the 1940s stars Gemma Arterton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. When a young evacuee arrives at the home of a Alice, a secluded and independent writer. Alice finds fresh impetus in exploring her life and the ghosts of her past. With the summer leading to old wounds beginning to heal and a new life shining through.

Once again Pureland Foundation returns as the main sponsor of this years BFI Flare. With the festivals full programme available from the 18th February via our news page and the BFI website. And Cinerama Film will continue to ensure the the diversity of LGBTQ+ world cinema at BFI Flare takes centre stage on our site in March.