Echo Chamber - BFI Flare - Day 5

'Day 5' ends the first weekend of the 35th 'BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival'.

Our @EchoChamberFP coverage looks at first love in its truest, sweetest forms. Both films are debuts from the directors and the work will really give the heart palpitations. One deals with holiday love and the other shows us that even in tragedy love can be found.

'Sweetheart' is the debut feature film, written/directed by Marley Morrison. Tina (Jo Hartley) wants one more holiday with all the family, especially as her eldest Lucy (Sophia Di Martino) is soon to have a baby with her boyfriend Steve (Samuel Anderson). The problem is AJ aka April Jane (Nell Barlow) did not want to come, AND, is not going to have fun! She doesn't want to be on a campsite looking after her little sister Dayna (Tabitha Byron). That is until she bumps into lifeguard Isla (Ella-Rae Smith) and wonders if this could be her official awakening since coming out, and maybe, she could fall in and receive love.

'My First Summer' is the sensational debut from writer & director Katie Found. It introduces us to Claudia (Markella Kavenagh) after she's gone through a tragedy no one should ever face. All her life she's lived in isolation, so she is lost, with only her dog Tilly for a companion. That is until Grace (Maiah Stewardson) comes by. Because Grace was the only witness to the incident and wants to make sure Claudia is OK. In doing so, they become close, offering each other the thing neither thought they were truly missing. But is it enough to keep all of the perils of life at bay.

In today's episode: