TONGUES UNTIED
55min | Documentary
Marlon Riggs celebrates black men loving black men as a revolutionary act in this groundbreaking 1989 semi-documentary, which sparked controversy in the United States with its frank depictions of homosexuality. The film intercuts footage of poet Essex Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs recounting stories from his childhood, scenes of men chatting and dancing, and various comic riffs, including a visit to the "Institute of Snap!thology," where men take lesso...
TONGUES UNTIED
55min | Documentary
Marlon Riggs celebrates black men loving black men as a revolutionary act in this groundbreaking 1989 semi-documentary, which sparked controversy in the United States with its frank depictions of homosexuality. The film intercuts footage of poet Essex Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs recounting stories from his childhood, scenes of men chatting and dancing, and various comic riffs, including a visit to the "Institute of Snap!thology," where men take lessons in how to snap their fingers: the sling snap, the point snap, the diva snap. The film closes with obituaries for victims of AIDS and archival footage of the civil rights movement placed next to footage of black men marching in a gay pride parade.
The Marlon Riggs Retrospective includes:
TONGUES UNTIED - 10th June- 19:30
MARLON RIGGS SHORTS - 8th July- 19:30
BLACK IS... BLACK AIN'T - 12th August-19:30
Marlon Riggs (3 February 1957- 5 April 1994) was an American filmmaker, poet and gay rights activists. Educated at Harvard, he moved to Oakland, California, where he worked in film production and later taught at U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. His work scrutinises blackness, racism, sexuality identity, and the stigma of HIV/AIDS, and was widely acclaimed critically and academically during his lifetime.
