Tongues Untied

Tongues Untied is a 1989 semi-documentary film directed by Marlon Riggs. The film seeks, in its author's words to, "...shatter the nation's brutalising silence on matters of sexual and racial difference."

Content

The film blends documentary footage with personal account and fiction in an attempt to depict the specificity of black gay identity. The "silence" referred to throughout the film is that of black gay men, who are unable to express themselves because of the prejudices of white and black heterosexual society, as well as the white gay movement.

The narrative structure of Tongues Untied is both interesting and unconventional. Besides including documentary footage detailing North American black gay culture, Riggs also tells of his own experiences as a gay man. These include the realising of his sexual identity and of coping with the deaths of many of his friends to AIDS. Other elements within the film include footage of the civil rights movement and clips of Eddie Murphy performing a homophobic stand-up routine.

Release and reception

At the time of its release, the film was considered controversial because of its frank portrayal of gay sexuality. Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan cited Tongues Untied as an example of how President George H. W. Bush was using taxpayer's money to fund "pornographic art". In his defense, Riggs stated that, "Implicit in the much overworked rhetoric of community standards is the assumption of only one central community (patriarchal, heterosexual and usually white) and only one overarching cultural standard ditto."

References

Further reading

Black American Cinema, Manthia Diawara.
Resolutions: Contemporary Video Practices, (eds. Renov, Michael & Erika Suderburg) (London, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996).
Racial Difference and the Homoerotic imaginary, Kobena Mercer

External links

• Tongues Untied at the Internet Movie Database
• Tongues Untied at AllRovi
• Tongues Untied at Rotten Tomatoes