Tongues Untied

Alternate title(s):
Foreign Title:
Date: January 01, 1989 to December 31, 1989
Dates Note: 1989
Country of Origin: United States
Place of Origin: United States
Languages:
Color: Color
Silent: No
Based On:
Additional Info:

Curator Notes

Film Series/Exhibition Title: 
Pioneers of Queer Cinema
Description: 

Tongues Untied is about the silence that envelops the lives of Black gay men. This exhilarating work is a loquacious attempt to break free of the homophobia and racism that mute the possibilities for human fulfillment. Marlon Riggs creates a poetic pastiche that has the emotional uplift of gospel music and the sobering impact of reportage. The words of gay poets, personal testimony, rap tableaux, dramatic sequences, and archival footage are woven together with a seductive palette of video effects. Riggs dared to speak the words that would conjure a life into being: “Black men loving Black men is the revolutionary act.”

—Steve Seid

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