Pariah 15

A rare opportunity to see this delightfully warm and honest film, which despite wow-ing audiences at Sundance 2011, never received UK release.

17 year-old Alike quietly but surely embraces her identity as a lesbian. Growing up in Brooklyn, as a straight-A student and talented poet, she is comfortable with who she is, but faces the difficulty of encouraging her family’s acceptance. At home, her sexuality is an unspoken truth hoped to be a phase. Her parents’ relationship is tense, Alike has cultivated two distinct appearances: her streetwise, androgynous self and the effeminate young girl that puts her parents at ease, but as she navigates young adulthood and begins to explore her sexuality, it becomes difficult to maintain the illusion.

We are also screening our very own BFI Film Academy made film titled Accidental Hero ahead of the film. This was made as part of the BFI Film Academy 2021-2022 course at the Showroom Cinema.

This film is screening as part of the BFI Young Programmers Festival. For more information about the rest of the programme please click here. The Young Programmers Festival was planned and put together by 36 talented 16-19 year olds from this year’s BFI Specialist Programming Course, which runs here at Showroom Cinema each year.

Statement from the Young Programmers:

We wanted to include a range of films that portray a diverse scope of people. In doing this, we hope whoever is watching can relate with elements of the films to ensure everyone feels included, which is the main goal of our festival. The films we chose include people from different aspects of the LGBTQIA+ community as well as different backgrounds, races, and cultures. We feel like these films are authentic and represent the community well, rather than built on stereotypes and stigmas, allowing people to feel represented by what they see on screen.

Growing up as part of the LGBTQ+ community can often feel very isolating, especially when there is so little representation of those identities in mainstream media: Giving queer films and filmmakers a platform to tell their story allows queer people to see themself on screen and may help them realise they are not alone in how they identify or in what they are going through. In a society where LGBTQ+ media is often underrepresented or pushed to the side, we hope this season may help some people understand the importance of queer representation in film. Also creating a safe environment where people can be themselves no matter their identity is important to us, as some people may grow up without easy access to those spaces.