Belfast Film Festival is delighted to partner once again with Pride for a short season of screenings as part of the city’s 10 day LGBT festival.
Based on Jane Rule’s novel Desert of the Heart, Donna Deitch’s narrative feature debut Desert Hearts (29th July) centres on a burgeoning lesbian romance in Reno, Nevada in the late 1950s, a climate wherein being queer was…complicated. The film broke the mould of how a lesbian love story could be represented on screen and remains as vibrant and intoxicating as it was when first released in 1985.
In the early 1970s, Rainer Werner Fassbinder discovered the American melodramas of Douglas Sirk and was inspired by them to begin working in a new, more intensely emotional register. One of the first and best-loved films of this period in his career is The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (30th July), which balances a realistic depiction of tormented romance with staging that remains true to the director’s roots in experimental theatre.
The Untold Tales Of Armistead Maupin (6th August) examines the life and work of one of the world’s most beloved storytellers, following his evolution from a conservative son of the Old South into a gay rights pioneer whose novels have inspired millions to claim their own truth. Jennifer Kroot’s documentary about the creator of Tales Of The City moves nimbly between playful and poignant and laugh-out-loud funny.