Projects in genres: LGBTQIA+

Synopsis

Max is gender non conforming trans person, who gives birth to River. Max has decided to raise River gender neutral, and the film explores what that means to them and how they go about it.

Synopsis

Filmed over a 22 year period, NO IFS OR BUTS delivers a portrait of Soho barbershop, Cuts, an iconic London hub for street fashion and pop innovators. Guided by freewheeling founders James Lebon and Steve Brooks, who met when one was a rockabilly and the other a New Romantic, the salon moved from early ’80s postpunk roots to become a hip-hop club and communal hub for DJs, photographers and style icons. But the film "is not just about the haircut", delivering an intimate portrait of Steve struggling with a traumatic past that threatens to derail the Cuts universe. The film traces profound and often tragic change in the hairdressers' lives within the wider context of the UK's political and cultural landscape- an anthem to the promise of youth and the friendships that endure over a lifetime. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2018 - World premiere

Synopsis

Over the course of a night out in a queer club, Raf struggles to find his place among the crowd until he stops trying to force the narrative and just lets himself go with the music. Official Selection Berlinale 2019 - Berlinale Shorts and Generation 14plus - European premiere

Synopsis

Where does the character end and the actor begin? This debut feature from UK artist-filmmaker Richard Squires, is a creative documentary that employs 'Clovis', an animated antihero (voiced by 'Kids in the Hall's' Mark McKinney) as a means to explore the particular “voice” casting of cartoon villains in the late 1960s. Through the lens of one of Hollywood’s hidden queer histories, this documentary offers a contemplation on the psycho-social relationship between villainy and hysterical male laughter; the use of voice as a signifier of ‘otherness’ and the frequently uneasy symbiosis of character and actor. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2018 - Experimenta Strand - World premiere Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2019 - Bright Future - International premiere

Synopsis

A comedy about being weird and struggling for a connection. The film opens as Benjamin, a rising star filmmaker, is on the brink of premiering his difficult second film ’No Self' when Billie, his hard drinking publicist, introduces him to a mesmeric French musician called Noah. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2018 - Laugh Strand - World premiere

Synopsis

An intimate documentary portrait of Kimberly and Kai Shappley directed by Daresha Kyi and produced by Lindsey Dryden and Shaleece Haas: A Christian mother rejects her community’s beliefs as her 7-year-old transgender daughter navigates life at school, where she’s been banned from the girls’ bathroom. Official Selection SXSW 2019 - Documentary Shorts Competition

Synopsis

Tricked by reality TV director Ava to spy on their son Eddie, Margaret and Chris have no idea what that soon they be watching helplessly as a disaster of their own making unfold - as Eddie is seduced by a mysterious woman.

Synopsis

A restless young man wants to leave love, and the Earth, behind. Mankind reflects the idea of humans being explorers by nature, and the consequences of standing still, for too long.

Synopsis

Omar lives a lonely life in London. One evening he meets Marco, a Spanish student newly-arrived in town. As their night together progresses, the truth of Marco’s journey to London will change Omar forever.

Synopsis

An intimate documentary directed by Cary Cronenwett, produced by Lindsey Dryden, Shaleece Haas. Eisha Love was incarcerated in a men’s jail after acting in self-defense. Now, as she rebuilds her life after incarceration, she faces trying to get a steady job as an out trans woman with a criminal record.

Synopsis

By the 1920s Virginia Woolf has reached the apex of modern world literature with her landmark novel, 'Mrs. Dalloway', but nothing seems to soothe the darkness that plagues her. She is powerless over the mood swings that alternately lift her to manic creative heights and then crush her under suffocating melancholia, driving her deeper into seclusion... Poems and letters of admiration from Vita Sackville-West lead to a courtship that is hardly concealed from their respective husbands. Soon, Virginia is enthralled by Vita. She is everything Virginia is not – extroverted, direct, in possession of a strongly magnetic personality and, as Virginia notes, a pair of the most "amazing legs". Focusing on the period in 1927-8 during which Woolf wrote 'Orlando', the novel their relationship inspired, 'Vita & Virginia' is the long-gestating feature adaptation of actor and writer Dame Eileen Atkins’ play of the same name. Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - Special Presentations - World premiere

Synopsis

Unable to tell his family the truth about his sexuality, Rahmi lives a double life. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2018 - World premiere