Girl Picture, Alli Haapasalo’s spirited coming-of-age drama will open the 36th edition of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival set to run March 16th – 27, 2022. The festival will close with Tramps!, directed by documentary filmmaker Kevin Hegge, whose previous film She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column screened at BFI Flare in 2013.
The UK Premiere of Finnish director Alli Haapasalo’s Girl Picture, which won the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and will screen in the 2022 Berlinale next week, opens the Festival on Wednesday March 16th. Mimmi, Emma and Rönkkö are girls at the cusp of womanhood, trying to draw their own contours. Over three consecutive Fridays, two of them experience the earth moving effects of falling in love, while the third goes on a quest to find something she’s never experienced: pleasure.
The Festival will close on Saturday 26th March with the World Premiere of Kevin Hegge’s feature documentary Tramps! – that looks at how in London in the 1980’s, an onslaught of art students arriving in the city resulted in a unique cross-fertilization of British art, fashion, music and film culminating in a group known as “The New Romantics”. Hegge’s film shifts the focus onto the diversity of work being made by the lesser-celebrated, yet equally influential contributors to the scene. A direct message of hope to artists at a time when it’s needed most, Tramps! illustrates how creative resilience laid the foundations for the creative subcultures that followed.
Michael Blyth, BFI Flare’s Senior Programmer said: “It’s hard to believe it has been three years since Flare last took over BFI Southbank, filling its screens with its unique queer magic. This year we return with a full live program and a selection of online highlights for audiences around the UK, and we’re thrilled to be announcing the dazzling duo that will open and close this year’s BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Fest. Both are set to delight our audiences and steal their hearts!”
Alli Haapasalo, Director, Girl Picture, said: “I am ecstatic to show Girl Picture at the renowned BFI Flare, and it is a very special honor to open this year’s festival. I really look forward to having an inspiring and meaningful exchange about the film with the Flare audience.”
Kevin Hegge, Director, TRAMPS! said: “Tramps! is a film many years in the making, and wouldn’t have existed if it weren’t for BFI Flare programming my debut feature documentary in 2013. Having met musician Verity Susman (Electrelane) at that same festival, Verity has now collaborated on the original soundtrack for the film with Matt Simms (WIRE). Working from Canada, during a pandemic with our amazing editor, Neil Cavalier, has proven both rewarding and challenging. In the end, I believe we’ve landed on what I think is a very special film that offers a new perspective on a major pop-cultural movement and we are both humbled and excited to share it with London audiences as BFI Flare’s Closing Night film.”