No Regrets: A Celebration of Marlon Riggs

September 19–November 25, 2019

In his lucid and provocative video essays, Marlon Riggs grappled with African American culture, representation, and identity. This retrospective presents all of his films, in dialogue with works by other filmmakers.

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Tongues Untied
Black Is . . . Black Ain't
Affirmations
Cheryl Dunye: The Watermelon Woman
Thomas Allen Harris: Vintage: Families of Value

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Past Films

Black Is . . . Black Ain’t
Marlon Riggs
United States, 1995
BAMPFA Collection
Thursday, September 19 7 PM
Nicole Atkinson Roach, Ryanaustin Dennis, and Chika Okoye in Conversation
Riggs’s richly textured exploration of black American identity was his final work, completed by colleagues after his death. It features appearances by Angela Davis, bell hooks, Cornel West, Essex Hemphill, and Bill T. Jones, among other luminaries.
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Long Train Running: A History of the Oakland Blues
Marlon Riggs, Peter Webster
United States, 1981
Thursday, September 26 7 PM
Introduction by Ashley Omoma; Karen Everett in Person
Riggs and Peter Webster’s thesis project reflects on the heyday of Oakland blues in the late 1940s and ’50s, chronicling the city’s vibrant past while revealing an uncertain present. With Karen Everett’s profile of Riggs, I Shall Not Be Removed.
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Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives
Peter Adair, Nancy Adair, Veronica Selver, Andrew Brown, Robert Epstein, Lucy Massie Phenix
United States, 1977
Friday, October 18 7 PM
Mariposa Film Group Members in Person
Perhaps the first feature-length documentary on gay and lesbian identity, and still relevant today, this film features interviews with a diverse group of individuals, including poet Elsa Gidlow, activist Sally Gearhart, inventor John Burnside, civil rights leader Harry Hay, and filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky.
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Tongues Untied
Marlon Riggs
United States, 1989
BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
Tongues Untied is also presented in a free screening on Monday, November 25 (with Ken Light, Darieck B. Scott, and Leila Weefur in conversation).
Wednesday, October 23 7 PM
Introduction by Elena Gross; Vivian Kleiman in Conversation
Riggs’s riveting combination of interviews, performance, stock footage, autobiography, poetry, and dance reveals the revolutionary potential of black men loving black men. With Riggs’s short Anthem.
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Reflections and Affirmations: Marlon Riggs and Others
Friday, October 25 4 PM
Brontez Purnell in Person
This program puts the work of Marlon Riggs in conversation with that of other artists reflecting on, affirming, and celebrating their identities, including Julie Dash, Isaac Julien, Thomas Allen Harris, and Brontez Purnell.
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Ethnic Notions
Marlon Riggs
United States, 1986
Friday, November 1 4 PM
Introduction by Herman S. Gray
Riggs interrogates how material culture perpetuates racial stereotypes in this powerful and unblinking work. Followed by Color Adjustment, in which Riggs extends his examination to network television.
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The Watermelon Woman
Cheryl Dunye
United States, 1996
Saturday, November 2 8 PM
Cheryl Dunye’s first feature, on a lesbian video-store clerk and would-be filmmaker who becomes obsessed with the career of an early “race film” star, is “funky screwball comedy in the key of queer” (B. Ruby Rich).
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Vintage: Families of Value
Thomas Allen Harris
United States, 1995
Friday, November 22 7 PM
Jesse Hawthorne Ficks and Marvin K. White in Conversation
Thomas Allen Harris explores the intersections of race, family, and sexuality in this pioneering essay film, which focuses on three groups of queer black siblings, including the director and his brother.
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Tongues Untied
Marlon Riggs
United States, 1989
Free Admission!
This screening is presented as part of Arts + Design Mondays. Tongues Untied also screens Wednesday, October 23 (with Elena Gross and Vivian Kleiman in conversation; regular admission prices apply).
Monday, November 25 6:30 PM
Ken Light, Darieck B. Scott, and Leila Weefur in Conversation
Riggs’s riveting combination of interviews, performance, stock footage, autobiography, poetry, and dance reveals the revolutionary potential of black men loving black men.
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No Regrets: A Celebration of Marlon Riggs

September 19–November 25, 2019

Marlon Riggs (1957–1994) was a graduate of and professor at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism who employed the medium of video to engage critically with African American (and American) culture, representation, and identity. Riggs is best known for his brilliant 1989 video essay Tongues Untied, a riveting combination of interviews, performance, stock footage, autobiography, poetry, and dance that elucidates the revolutionary potential of black men loving black men. Aiming to reach the broadest possible audience, Riggs made videos for public television, but he resisted the conventions of talking-head documentaries, using innovative approaches to construct provocative, layered, and lucid works that have maintained an enduring presence at film festivals, cinemas, and universities internationally.

Riggs was diagnosed with HIV while making Tongues Untied, but continued to advocate for gay rights and the...

Riggs was diagnosed with HIV while making Tongues Untied, but continued to advocate for gay rights and the end of the silence around the illness both on and off screen. His final film, Black Is . . . Black Ain’t (1995)—completed posthumously by his collaborators—is a sweeping investigation of the heterogeneous nature of African American identity, suggesting the need for inclusive definitions of blackness that transcend patriarchal and homophobic barriers to community.

Celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of Tongues Untied and nearing twenty-five years since the release of Black Is . . . Black Ain’t, this retrospective includes all of Riggs’s films along with works by filmmakers addressing similar issues in a variety of innovative ways.

— Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator

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Series organized by Associate Film Curator Kate MacKay. Out of the Vault guest presentations by Nicole Atkinson Roach and Brontez Purnell are generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Thanks to Vivian Kleiman, Signifyin’ Works; Cornelius Moore, California Newsreel; Daniel Moretti, Frameline; Massimo Pacchione and Katharine Wallerstein, Berkeley Arts and Design; Les Gorske, Division of Arts & Humanities; Damon Young, Department of Film and Media, UC Berkeley; Ashley Clark, Brooklyn Academy of Music; and UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.