Tongues Untied is a film essay by Marlon Riggs, a Texas-born African American poet, filmmaker, educator, and gay rights activist. The film, which Riggs describes as his legacy, celebrates black men loving black men as a revolutionary act.
The film, which features spoken word and poetry by Riggs and poet Essex Hemphill, is an artful visual statement about the queer black male experience and embraces authentic and radical notions of black gay identity and positivity. Riggs was diagnosed with HIV while making the film, and later died of AIDS-related causes in 1994.
Historian George Chauncey notes that in the 1920s, “Although Greenwich Village’s gay enclave was the most famous in the city, even most white gay men thought gay life was livelier and more open in Harlem than in the Village.” Its Prohibition-era gay-oriented clubs, mixing among black and white, straight and gay, featured queer performers such as Gladys Bentley. When Albert Maysles decided to open a non-profit cinema, they chose Harlem specifically to serve a community without direct access to independent cinema. The Maysles Cinema – the only independent cinema north of Lincoln Center – is committed to creating a democratic space that provides educational outreach to the local community as well as pay-what-you-can screenings. It is located near the site of the gay club Lulu Belle, where, according to Chauncey, “thirty men were arrested for wearing drag” over a two week period in 1928.
(A Month of Queer Interventions in NYC Spaces, July 1st-31st)
Curated by Evan Garza
Here’s the trailer:
Maysles Cinema, 343 Lenox Ave, New York, New York 10027, cinema@maysles.org
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