So thrilled to announce that I will be presenting an original research presentation, 'The Story of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival', at British Film Institute (BFI) Flare's 40th Anniversary on March 23rd! 🎥 🏳️‍🌈 🎞️ 🏳️‍⚧️ Tickets go live on 26th February 12pm! whatson.bfi.org.uk/flare/Online...

The Story of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival | BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival 2026

An illustrated talk exploring the 40-year history of BFI Flare.

whatson.bfi.org.uk

Berlin world premiere of The Story of Documentary Film today.

Good morning (fade in: autumn)

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Link here to the BFI Blog detailing their wonderful Research Showcase event - featuring an action shot of yours truly too! blog.bfi.org.uk/knowledge-an...

Queer film blog from last month! Now all available on Substack 🏳️‍🌈✨🎞️📽️📃 substack.com/@jossmorfitt...

QueerFilmDiary: May 2025

By Joss Morfitt

substack.com

It was a pleasure to discuss the BFI’s pioneering history of lesbian and gay film programming at the BFI Research Showcase event July 2025, with these lovely BFI-partnered researchers presenting too! Migrant cinema; costume design and invisible labour; woman’s cinema in the archive—such great talks!

New Queer Film blog post is live ! If you fancy a read of my BFI Flare 2025 watches then follow this link: thequeerfilmdiaries.wordpress.com 🎞️💫🎥🫦📲

Adding some joy to the timeline! I’m pleased to announce my first publication, exploring how associations between sex work and drug use deepened in 1980s Britain in the context of the AIDS epidemic. Read it here in Modern British History’s latest issue: academic.oup.com/tcbh/article...

Vice versa: sex work and drug use during the HIV epidemic in Thatcher’s Britain

Abstract. This article traces the origins of the present-day association of prostitution and drug addiction in Britain. Through an examination of a variety

academic.oup.com

Just watched: two boys become very close in a Jesuit-run school in France. Though another seminal text (spoiler alert!) in Vito Russo’s morbid cinematic Necrology, don’t be put off by its tragic ending: it is beautifully tender, light, and sensitive nonetheless.

Just watched: a young woman is sold into the ownership of a coercive brothel-owning kung-fu fighting lesbian. Dazzlingly choreographed and shot, this is a baroque queer work that jettisons all stereotypes to construct something truly original!

Just watched: subversive and unpredictable, this French feminist film is hugely ahead of its time. While its lesbian representation verges on problematic, its depiction of sex work is refreshing. A woman escapes the shackles of working-class life, here, exulting in the emancipations it promises.

My queer film blog post for January 2025 is now available! I look at Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain, British new wave classic The Leather Boys, RaMell Ross’ subversive masterpiece Nickel Boys, another stunning turn from Ralph Fiennes in Conclave, and many more… thequeerfilmdiaries.wordpress.com

The Queer Film Diaries

Notes from the search for new queer images

thequeerfilmdiaries.wordpress.com

My first article has been published! If you fancy a read on the history of Britain’s gay and lesbian film curation, and an interview with Richard Dyer on his groundbreaking season ‘Images of Homosexuality’, then click the link below… academic.oup.com/screen/artic...

‘Better a bad image than no image’: interview with Richard Dyer on organizing the UK’s first lesbian and gay film season

Practices in film curation share a rich history with Britain’s gay liberation projects. With the 1970s came the proliferation of numerous countercultural c

academic.oup.com