BFI Flare Film Festival at SPARK, Manchester

Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor

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BFI Flare Film Festival at SPARK

4 July 2017

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Mum - Image courtesy of SPARK
Mum - Image courtesy of SPARK
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Brand new transgender arts festival, SPARK, arrives in Manchester this July with a multi-disciplinary celebration of the work of trans and non-binary artists. Festival curators Trans Creative have teamed up with British Film Institute programmer, Zorian Clayton, to co-present a programme of local and national short films on tour from this year’s BFI Flare LGBT film festival.

Screening for the first time in the north, the programme focuses on positive, empowering stories based around family, transitioning and gender expression. The line up includes: Anne-Marie O’Connor‘s autobiographical Mum, Pallavi Somusetty’s film about a non-binary person in India, Escaping Agra and Sarah Jenny Johnson’s documentary of transitioning, Eli. Trans Creative’s Artistic Director and co-creator of Mum, Kate O’Donnell, will host the evening and a Q&A with Eli afterwards.

Where to go near BFI Flare Film Festival at SPARK, Manchester

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Elizabeth Gaskell’s House has been lovingly restored; you can now sit at her desk, see where Charlotte Brontë hid behind the curtains, and have tea in the downstairs café. The Pankhurst Centre is also nearby.

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