FLARE 2022

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

It can often feel that for the queer community, arguments for equality have been, largely fought and won, with over thirty countries now legalizing same sex marriage. This even includes, former right-wing bastion Chile, the future therefore can appear bright. And, yet if you look closely, there is cause for concern, particularly in the world’s three superpowers, China, Russia and America. China recently, after displaying a degree of tolerance toward its queer community, now appears to have changed course, with the government launching a national crackdown, and now permanently shutting down many university LGBTQI social media sites. In Russia, civil liberties are witnessing a full throttle assault as this once authoritarian country, is now rapidly descending into a totalitarian state, closely aligning itself with the largely homophobic Russian Orthodox church. Members of the country’s queer community are leaving, not just in response to Russia’s invasion of its neighbour Ukraine, but also out of concern about how far the country is willing to go in its desire to stamp out all alternative voices. In America, a country which only six years ago, appeared to be on the cusp of a new more tolerant age, now appears to be retreating, and is in the process of rolling back abortion rights. Many activists in the country fear that the legal attacks on the Trans community which the country is also witnessing, foreshadow a complete legal assault on the rights of the country’s queer community. So, in this climate it is heart-warming to see the BFI Flare film festival return for its first in person festival in two years. A beautiful celebration of the lives of queer people from around the world. Below are some of my personal favourites.

Benediction is Terence Davies’ beautiful tribute to World War I war poet, Siegfried Sassoon. The film looks at both his struggle as a gay man at a time when, homosexuality was illegal as well as his experience of the war. Feeling a need to confirm after the war has ended, Sassoon marries a woman with whom he has a child and remains married to until her death. The film though beautifully captures his unhappiness not simply in having to mask his sexuality but also his untreated “survivors’ guilt” something many soldiers felt when they returned from that terrible conflict. The film is sublime to look at and contains a dazzling central performance by Jack Lowden as the young hopeful Sassoon with Peter Capaldi playing his older deeply unhappy self. Although Benediction highlights how difficult it was for gay men from that generation to live their lives honestly, you feel what ultimately broke Sassoon was not this but rather the fact that he survived the war, or rather his body survived but his mind was forever haunted. At a time of unprecedented violence in the Ukraine, this film highlights the true human cost of any conflict.

Jimmy in Saigon is a beautiful documentary of a brother’s search for the true cause of his older brother’s death in Saigon and in seeking that also tries to piece together who in fact his brother really was. Directed by Peter McDowell, the title character’s brother, Jimmy in Saigon is in many ways almost a ghost story since it charts the journey the director makes in chasing the ghost of his long dead brother. McDowell’s journey takes him to Vietnam where his brother fought during the American war there, but more surprisingly, a place his brother chose to return to after his tour of duty was completed. Vietnam would also be the country in which his brother dies.

We meet as part of this journey the Vietnamese sister of his brother’s close male friend, a friend who most contemporaries now assume was Jimmy’s lover. The person who Jimmy returned to and the person who never forgot him after his death, someone who Peter finds out later died himself not very long after from what the film suggests was a broken heart. Mc Dowell’s journey in this beautifully shot documentary fails in answering all his questions or solving all the mysteries which surrounded his brother, but he does succeed in creating an emotional link with him and in a way as a gay man, he comes away feeling far less isolated than he did before. Since it now appears that, his brother was gay too.

Invisible: Gay Women in Southern Music is a wonderful documentary, which highlights the irony, which is that despite American country music being one of the most conservative musical genres in the world it is also largely written by queer women. The documentary explores the fact that so many of these extremely talented songwriters, would prefer solo careers but they fear the audiences they write for would reject them if they knew the truth about their sexuality. So, they remain largely anonymous to their fans.

Wet Sands is a feature from Georgia beautifully directed by Elene Naveriani, which explores another mystery. In this case, the mystery is the suicide of the lead character’s grandfather. When Moe, the film’s central character, returns to this deeply conservative village, on the black seacoast she finds a village, who primarily want to hang on to its secrets. Because of this, they do not want to discuss the death of her grandfather. It’s only Moe’s dogged persistence, which revels the complexity of her grandfather’s life as well as the existence of a male lover who is as destroyed by his suicide as she is. The film Wet Sands shows how many Central European countries are still struggling with the issue of homophobia, countries who feel happier if their queer community would simply remain silent.

Wildhood a First Nation’s coming of age love story stands as my own personal favourite. It tells the story of a troubled First Nation, teenager Link, who struggles to protect his younger brother from the violent abuse of his father. One night though he discovers hidden birthday cards from a mother he had, long been told was dead. This discovery propels him go on a road trip with his younger half-brother, a trip which Link hopes will lead him to her and maybe during the journey help him discover himself. Beautiful written and directed by first nation’s filmmaker Bretten Hannan, a member the Mi’kmaq community in Canada. Hannan brings an informed sensitivity to this beautiful study of first love.