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Flare · 2019

Flare 2019

Bodies

Programme

17 films · 8 reviews

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The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert

Groundbreaking cult classic about a transsexual on a cross-country trip to Alice Springs. Scheduled to celebrate the film before the stage version opens in the West End.

(Country: Australia; Year: 1994; Director: Stephan Elliott; Writer: Stephan Elliott; Stars: Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Terence Stamp, Rebel Penfold-Russell, John Casey, June Marie Bennett, Murray Davies, Frank Cornelius, Bob Boyce, Leighton Picken)

Giant Little Ones

Coming of age tale.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2018; Director: Keith Behrman; Writer: Keith Behrman; Stars: Maria Bello, Kyle MacLachlan, Taylor Hickson, Kiana Madeira, Peter Outerbridge, Darren Mann, Niamh Wilson, Josh Wiggins, Olivia Scriven, Stephanie Moore, Cory Lee, Jeff Clarke, Evan Marsh, Carson MacCormac, Hailey Kittle)

Girl

Review preview for Girl

Directed with admirable understatement and restraint.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A teenage trans girl dreams of becoming a ballerina.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2018; Director: Lukas Dhont; Writer: Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens; Stars: Nele Hardiman, Victor Polster, Arieh Worthalter)

Full review

Greta

An older, gay nurse takes one of his patients into his own home. His neighbour, an ailing transwoman, is part of this parallel society portrayed in this moving drama.

(Country: Brazil; Year: 2019; Director: Armando Praça; Stars: Marco Nanini, Denise Weinberg, Demick Lopes, Gretta Star)

The Ground Beneath My Feet (Der Boden unter den Füssen)

A high-powered business consultant finds her life starting to unravel after her older sister, who has a mental illness, comes back into her life.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2019; Director: Marie Kreutzer; Writer: Marie Kreutzer; Stars: Valerie Pachner, Pia Hierzegger, Mavie Hörbiger, Michelle Barthel, Marc Benjamin, Dominic Marcus Singer, Meo Wulf, Axel Sichrovsky, Bernd Birkhahn, Axel Wandtke, Martina Eitner-Acheampong, Susann Uplegger, Lilly Marie Tschörtner, Florian Reiners, Regina Fritsch)

José

Review preview for José

Although the story is slight, Cheng treats the subject matter with care, allowing a slow but certain heat to build between José and Luis.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A working class gay young man faces tough choices after he falls for a builder.

(Country: Guatemala, US; Year: 2018; Director: Li Cheng; Writer: Li Cheng, George F. Roberson; Stars: Enrique Salanic, Manolo Herrera, Ana Cecilia Mota, Jhakelyn Waleska Gonzalez Gonzalez, Esteban Lopez Ramirez, Cesar Lorenzo Yojcom Candido, Juan Andres Molina Cardona, Alba Irene Lemus, Carlos Humberto Fuentes Maldonado, Jennifer Cecilia Amoia Mota, Evelyn Celinda Bautista Torres, Jashua Belvino Argueta Mejia, Valeria Maribel Xutuc Reyes, Mytian Ticas, Rony Andres Saavedra)

Full review

Knife + Heart (Un Couteau Dans Le Cour)

Review preview for Knife + Heart

This isn't the kind of film that's destined to win mainstream awards but Paradis' performance deserves to be remembered.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
Paris, Summer 1979. Anne produces third-rate gay porn. After her editor and lover Lois leaves her, she tries to win her back by shooting her most ambitious film yet with her trusted, flaming sidekick Archibald... then one of her actors is brutally murdered.

(Country: France, Mexico; Year: 2018; Director: Yann Gonzalez; Writer: Yann Gonzalez, Cristiano Mangione; Stars: Vanessa Paradis, Kate Moran, Nicolas Maury, Noé Hernández, Pierre Emö, Pierre Pirol, Thibault Servière, Naëlle Dariya, Salim Torki, Jeremy Flaum, Vanessa Paradis, Kate Moran, Nicolas Maury, Noé Hernández, Pierre Emö, Félix Maritaud)

Full review

Last Ferry

A young lawyer disappointed by his first Fyre Island vacation witnesses a murder while in a semi-conscious state and wakes to find a handsome stranger looking after him - but all is not what it seems.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Jaki Bradley; Writer: Ramon Torres; Stars: Ramon Torres, Sheldon Best, Myles Clohessy)

Leitis In Waiting

Review preview for Leitis In Waiting

Leitis In Waiting provides insight into the leiti community, Tongan society, the spread of American-funded missionary fundamentalism and the politics of resistance.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
The story of Joey Mataele and the Tonga Leitis, an intrepid group of transgender women fighting a rising tide of religious fundamentalism and intolerance in their country.

(Country: Tonga, US; Year: 2018; Director: Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson; Stars: Joey Joleen Mataele)

Full review

Little Miss Westie

Review preview for Little Miss Westie

This is very much fly-on-the-wall documentary, with explanations and expiation left up to those involved.

Jane Fae · 3.5 out of 5
Story of Ren, the first out transgirl to compete in the Little Miss Westie Pageant. Coaching her through the competition is her older brother Luca, who previously took part in the pageant when he lived as a girl.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Dan Hunt, Joy E Reed)

Full review

Lizzie

Review preview for Lizzie

This is a grim, austere story of the pressure cooker of frustration, rage and fear that results when the patriarchy squeezes just as tight as the corsets of the time.

Owen Van Spall · 3 out of 5
Lays bare the legend of Lizzie Borden to reveal the much more complex, poignant and truly terrifying woman within — and her intimate bond with the family’s young Irish housemaid, Bridget Sullivan.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Craig William Macneill; Writer: Bryce Kass; Stars: Chloë Sevigny, Kristen Stewart, Kim Dickens, Denis O'Hare, Fiona Shaw, Jeff Perry, Jamey Sheridan, Jay Huguley, Jeremy Sykes, Tara Ochs, Darin Cooper, Tom Thon, Zachary Kyle Musten, Jody Matzer, Thomas Mark Higgins)

Full review

Man Made

Tracking four pumped and proud bodybuilders at different stages in their transformation, this documentary unveils the supportive network of men preparing for the annual Trans FitCon

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: T Cooper; Writer: T Cooper, Alison Glock-Coope)

Night Comes On

Angel LaMere is released from juvenile detention on the eve of her 18th birthday. Haunted by her past, she embarks on a journey with her 10-year-old sister that could destroy their future.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Jordana Spiro; Writer: Angelica Nwandu, Jordana Spiro; Stars: Dominique Fishback, Tatum Marilyn Hall, Max Casella, Erin Darke, James McDaniel, Denisa Juhos, Victor Cruz, Antu Yacob, Juliet Brett, John B. McCann, James Ciccone, Vickie Warehime, Angel Bismark Curiel, Jeté Laurence, Lucia Ryan)

Nevrland

This film centres on teenager Jakob, a shy boy who works at a pig processing plant by day and by night is a webcam obsessive.

(Country: Austria; Year: 2019; Director: Gregor Schmidinger; Writer: Gregor Schmidinger)

Shelter: Farewell To Eden

Review preview for Shelter: Farewell To Eden

You get the sense Masi wants Pepsi to be a pivot for the issues engulfing modern Europe, but in the process he often loses sight of her own story.

Sunil Chauhan · 3 out of 5
The thoughts and life of Pepsi, a transgender woman born in the Philippines, now living in Italy.

(Country: Italy, France; Year: 2019; Director: Enrico Masi; Writer: Enrico Masi, Stefano Migliore; Stars: Pepsi, Catherine Wihtol de Wenden, Gabriel James Patiag)

Full review

The Silk And The Flame

Yao is 40, single and on his way home for Lunar New Year. His paralysed father has taken a vow of silence and his mother is a deaf mute who lost her hearing as a child. They both want him to marry a nice local woman bt he has fallen for a foreign man.

(Country: US, China; Director: Jordan Schiele; Writer: Jordan Schiele; Stars: Yao Xin, Muqin, Fuqin)