Documentaries, old and new, with stills and notes for students, makers, and observers of documentary film and video. ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Marlon Riggs
Tongues Untied (1989) by Marlon Riggs was broadcast in the early years of public television's POV program. The film was essentially made by a one-man crew, because Riggs was the producer, director, cameraperson, and editor. He also appears in the film (top still), taking us through his personal story as a gay African American man. The span, ambition, and beauty of the film are not diminished after twenty years. Poetry and stories, dance and music, eulogies for dead friends, and observational and staged footage are at once tender, humorous, biting, and heartbreaking. The do-wop group (middle) is intercut with paraders and their detractors in one memorable sequence.
Title:
Tongues Untied