BFI London Film Festival 2022

04.05.2023

The Blue Caftan (Review) – a delicately crafted work of art

The Blue Caftan is now playing in selected cinemas. Set in Morocco, where gay men are still imprisoned and oppressed for showing or sharing their love, many will wrongly assume Maryam Touzani’s, The Blue Caftan, to be a classic gay romantic tragedy when it is an intricate tapestry of love and loss that defies simple labels. During the 40s and 50s, Morroco was a mecca for wealthy gay tourists as Tangier sat in an international zone with few rules. This led many gay men to seek refuge in Tangier from the persecution they faced in their own countries, including many

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17.02.2023

The Inspection (Review) – Bratton’s story is far more than just another military boot camp drama

The Inspection is now playing in cinemas nationwide. In 2019 director Elegance Bratton brought us the outstanding Pier Kids. Made between 2011 and 2016, Bratton’s documentary about three homeless LGBTQ+ youth of colour earnt rave reviews and found itself compared to Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning (1990). Bratton was no stranger to the experience of the young people he followed; he had also been homeless for ten years before joining the Marine Corps in 2005. As Bratton escaped the streets for military life, the events of 9/11 still haunted the United States, and while here in the UK, gays and lesbians could serve

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06.01.2023

Till (Review) – combines its portrait of courage with a discussion on the journey that still lies ahead

Till is now showing in cinemas nationwide. On the 28th of August 1955, Emmett Till was brutally murdered in the State of Mississippi. Emmett was just fourteen-years-old; his light extinguished by a group of local men who beat him, disfigured him then threw his body into the Tallahatchie River. Emmett was Chicago born and bred and had encountered racial segregation all his life, but nothing could have prepared him for the unadulterated hate present in Mississippi, where he was visiting family. It was in a small store that a casual and lightly flirtatious conversation with a young white woman behind the

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