Tongues Untied
Tongues Untied is Emmy Award-winning director Marlon T. Riggs's controversial 1989 film account of Black gay life.
Production Information
- Title: Tongues Untied
- Director: Marlon T. Riggs
- Year: 1989
- Country: USA
- Length: 55 min.
- Language: English
Synopsis
This is the acclaimed account of Black gay life by Emmy Award-winning director Marlon T. Riggs. Using poetry, personal testimony, rap and performance (featuring poet Essex Hemphill and others), Tongues Untied describes the homophobia and racism that confront Black gay men.
The stories are fierce examples of homophobia and racism: the man refused entry to a gay bar because of his color; the college student left bleeding on the sidewalk after a gay-bashing; the loneliness and isolation of the drag queen. Yet they also affirm the black gay male experience: protest marches, smoky bars, "snap diva", humorous "musicology" and Vogue dancers.
"My struggle has allowed me to transcend that sense of shame and stigma identified with my being a black gay man. Having come through that fire, they can’t touch me."
- Marlon T. Riggs
Awards
Best Independent/Experimental Work, L.A. Film Critics Award
First Prize, New Visions, San Francisco International Film Festival
First Prize, Experimental, National Educational Film & Video Festival
Best Black Independent Production, National Black Programming Consortium
Achievement Award, Big Muddy Film Fesetival
Best Video, Documentary Fesstiva, New York
Outstanding Merit Award, Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame
Honorable Mention, Black Maria Film Festival
Honorable Mention, Black American Cinema Society
New Works Premiere, American Film Institute of Video Festival
Video Viewpoints, Museum of Modern Art
Gay Lives '89, San Francisco Film Arts Festival
Best Performance Video, Atlanta Film & Video Festival
Special Jury Award, USA Film Festival
Special Jury Award, Newark Black Filmmakers Festival
Maya Deren Award, American Film Institute
Blue Ribbon, American Film & Video Festival
Best Documentary, San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival
Best Gay Documentary, Berlin International Film Festival
Reviews
“A black male warrior fighting for the right to love other black men, Marlon Riggs affirms what was nearly lost, newly found: the certainty that black male lives are utterly precious.” - Alice Walker
“Black Harvardite...gay...rejected by his southern peeps...struggling to find community...coming to SF and getting dissed in the Castro...attempting to confront racism in the gay community...conflicted around his identity issues and having them brought into sharp focus by his white lovers...you get the point. Watch it. You'll see that you ain't that different from the rest of us.”
- Juba Kalamka (aka Pointfivefag), Deep Dickollective, Oakland, CA
"Pointed and vital....Propelled at times by a beautifully articulated anger, Tongues Untied becomes a compelling look at conditions faced by Black gay men."
- Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle
"Usually, politically and socially admirable films fall short of the mark in the aesthetics department. They are praised more for their good intentions...Marlon Riggs has created that rarest of birds--a brilliant, innovative work of art that delivers a knock-out political punch."
- Vito Russo, The Advocate
"Tongues Untied stands alone as a model for placing sexuality in a contemporary social context. Nowhere else will you find a more complete dissection of the wholeness of the individual with this kind of haunting and eloquent truth."
- Jacquie Jones, Black Film Review
Distribution Information
Distributed by Frameline[1]
External Links
- [Tongues Untied] on www.frameline.org
- [a trailer of Tongues Untied]
