Beacon Bursary at the BFI Flare

The UCL Engagement Team, on behalf of one of our Beacon Bursary funded projects, would like to invite you to explore the poignant stories of three LGBTIQ+ refugees who fled Venezuela in search of a better life in Brazil this March at BFI Flare, London’s LGBTIQ+ Film Festival.

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UPDATE: As of the 16th March the BFI Flare Festival has been cancelled do to ongoing action as a result of the Covid-19 Virus outbreak.

The 26-minute documentary is the result of a collaboration between UCL Anthropology lecturer and filmmaker Dieter Deswarte and current and former residents of the Casa Miga shelter (the first shelter in Brazil for LGBTIQ+ refugees), as well as a number of local support organisations in Manaus, Brazil.

Funded by a public engagement Beacon Bursary from UCL Culture, Dieter spent four weeks at Casa Miga with residents of the shelter, training them in filmmaking skills, and collaboratively developing the documentary ‘Hazte Sentir’ (‘To Be Heard’). The project gave the residents of Casa Miga the opportunity to reflect on, document and communicate their experiences of stigmatisation and mass migration. The resulting documentary gives voice to and raises awareness of the challenges faced by LGBTIQ+ people in Venezuela and Brazil.

The documentary will also be screened at Ethnocineca festival in Vienna, Austria in May.