Cast:
Featuring Marlon T. Riggs, Essex Hemphill, Brian Freeman, among others. Directed and Produced by Marlon Riggs.
Review:
"Tongues, for me, was a catharsis. It was a release of a lot of decades-old, pent-up emotion, rage, guilt, feelings of impotence in the face of some of my experiences as a youth. So in that sense, the documentary was therapy for me."
The story of Marlon Riggs, much like the films he made, should not be forgotten. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas but the nature of his family (civilian employees of the military) meant that he moved around for a good deal of his childhood, living in both Texas and Georgia; his family moved to West Germany when Riggs was 11, where he would live until he moved back to the States to attend college. He attended Harvard University with study in history and graduated with honors; it was here where he realized his sexuality as a gay man and also found his calling in filmmaking through the study of history in American racism and homophobia. He found a partner in Jack Vincent in Oakland, who he lived with to the day he died. He studied further at University of California, Berkeley in journalism and documentary film within graduate school. After that, he became a film assistant, editor, and/or post-production supervisor on indie documentary productions. His first professional documentary as a director came with Ethnic Notions in 1987, which aired on numerous public television stations that dealt with memorabilia involving black stereotypes. In late 1988, Riggs was told that he was HIV-positive after he had suffered kidney failure. Along with a couple of short films, Riggs directed two further feature-length documentaries after Tongues Untied with Color Adjustment (aired in 1992 which dealt with prime-time TV entertainment in terms of representation of African Americans) and Black is... Black Ain't (aired in 1995 that aimed to show the comprehensive commentary of the Black experience by showing its diversity beyond saying what it means "to be Black). Riggs died in 1994 at the age of 37 from AIDS.
The movie is a way for people like Riggs to let go, one to express the emotions felt about how they view themselves in the community of being both Black and gay, which for him was rage at the treatment that he called "as a pariah". For Riggs, what matters most in terms of revolutionary acts is learning to love oneself and others. Within a runtime of roughly 55 minutes, it includes poetry along with plenty to say about identity with Riggs leading the way as one of the various voices seen in the film. Of course, what is also remembered about the film is the controversy that came after it had made its run on the festival circuit. It was scheduled to be shown on PBS on the television series POV. Both the show and the film had received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (in the case of Riggs, it came from a Regional Arts Fund that was funded by the NEA). The film received scrutiny from exactly who you would think would complain in the name of family values (in my opinion, when people like Pat Buchanan are leading the charge, its a clear sign to probably align with the opposing opinion; incidentally, he made an political ad about "values" by illegally using footage from the film). It is a time capsule movie, one that is still relevant to the very nature of identity and breaking the silences that may never go away among us. There were various writers for the film alongside Riggs, such as Donald Woods, Alan Miller, Steve Langely, Reginald Jackson, Essex Hemphill, Chris Harris, and Joseph Beam. The movie is candid in both somber and warm words about being someone that loves the touch of someone that is the same sex as they are that cannot stand oppression of any kind, whether that involves members of the gay community or Black folk. It presents this through various little stories such as the presentation of one's experiences growing up being hated by both blacks and whites (with various slurs recited). There are many words one could use to describe the film, but it is never boring in its singular pursuit of showing one particular way of life in all of its bare truths to realize just how much identity means to them without becoming a leap of lethargic loquaciousness. In the end, the legacy of the film is one to consider for all films: what it leaves behind for us to think and care about. Three decades have not softened the release of pent-up emotion that came with this film, which is a fascinating documentary in perspective and release in emotion.
Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.
Next Time: New Jack City.
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