• Send us Mail
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Join our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe to our RSS Feed
  • Search Site

Polari Magazine

  • Home
  • Up Front
    • Editorial
    • Clementine: The Living Fashion Doll
    • Polari Safari
    • WTF? Friday
    • Bulletin Board
    • Polari Facts
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Features
    • Gallery
    • Opinion
    • Heroes & Villains
  • Community
    • Oral Histories
    • Coming Out Stories
    • Relationships
    • IDAHO
    • LGBT History Month
    • Blogs
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • Film and Television
    • Music
    • Stage
    • Visual Arts
    • Classics: Books
    • Classics: Film and Television
    • Classics: Music
  • About
    • About Polari Magazine
    • Contributors
    • Contact

You are here: Polari Magazine / Classics: Film and Television / Tongues Untied (1989)

Tongues Untied (1989)

21 Feb 2013 / Comments Off / in Classics: Film and Television/by Angela Dennis

Tongues Untied  ★★★★★
Dir: Marlon Riggs
Cert: U • US: 55 min • Frameline  • July 14, 1989
………………………………………………………………………………………….

Tongues Untied, Film ReviewTongues Untied, film review

Tongues Untied (1989) by Marlon Riggs is an autobiographical performance piece, chronicling the filmmaker’s journey towards finding his identity as a black gay man in America. Reenactment, prose, poetry, song, dance, archival material, observation and first person narrative combine to position the viewer, as far as possible, into the subjective space and worldview of an African-American gay man. In opposition to the usual expository mode of documentary, which seems to speak from above, or outside a group, Riggs suggests that certain kinds of knowledge are only attainable through an identification with another’s subjective experience.  This places the film comfortably within contemporary social movements in which minority groups challenged the dominant historical and social narratives through ‘speaking their own personal truth’. Indeed, the interplay between speech and silence forms the dominant theme of Tongues Untied, emphasising the power of language to condemn, to marginalize, to discount and on the other hand, to release, to liberate and to include.

Much of the film presents Riggs directly facing the camera in a mid shot, against a black background. The effect recalls a theatre stage, with Riggs the sole performer, addressing the viewer in first person prose. Here is Riggs stripped bare, revealing to us his innermost thoughts and feelings. From this position, the viewer is able to see (or at least imagine) social issues such as homophobia, AIDs and racism, from the inside. In one scene, Riggs recalls childhood homophobic taunts. The camera cuts rapidly from extreme close ups of mouths swearing insults, back to Riggs’ face, closing in on his pained eyes. Though he says nothing, we hear his poetic inner monologue, expressing the isolation and confusion he feels.  Simultaneously, the insults are sped up and repeated, creating a cruel rhythmic song which seems to encircle both Riggs and ourselves. Thus the viewer become aware on an experiential level of the marginalizing effect of such taunts. These emotional scenes are intercut with lighter, humorous sequences, which offer a window into black gay ‘scenes’ and satirize common stereotypes. One sequence, ‘Snapthology’, appears as an entertaining instructional video on how to execute a successful finger snap, a form of haughty derision. The viewer cannot help but try the ‘snap’ and yet perceive the sequence’s sad implication; that this skill has developed as a form of defense against a hostile culture.

Beginning with the repeating words, ‘Brother to Brother’, Tongues Untied is threaded with narrative; prose, poetry, wordplay, rap, song, interpretive dance. Riggs reminds us that African-American musical and rhythmic skill has historically provided one of the few permitted forms of acceptance and inclusion for African Americans within a dominant white culture. Here he expressly reclaims this musical heritage for himself and his brothers within the gay African American community. Indeed Tongues Untied is a reflection of that very community, with Riggs’ friends participating in many of the sequences. Moreover, much of the narrative involves overlapping voices or multiple voices speaking in unison, indicating that the subjective space which the viewer is temporarily occupying is a shared space – the ‘I’ expressed is not Riggs alone, but is a group ‘I’. This group connection provides the backdrop for Rigg’s central realisation ; that once he was able to love other black men, he was able to love himself. Thus Tongues Untied culminates in a kind of political call to action, but not of the usual sort:

“Black men loving Black men is the revolutionary act”. SNAP!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
Tags: black men loving black men, finger snap, homophobia, marlon riggs, racism, tongues untied

Related Posts

Did you like this entry?
Here are a few more posts that might be interesting for you.
Related Posts
All The Beauty of the Sun • Marion Husband
Matt Fennemore, David Wojnarowicz You Killed Me First! Polari, gay arts and culture magazine Recording an Alternative History
Stand Up!
IDAHO(T) May 17 – Turned Down At The Picket ...
The Insurrectionist
Come Out and Drop Out
The poster for the film Plynace Wiezowce (Floating Skyscrapers)
Villains: Vladimir Putin
Wounded
The Get REAL Initiative

Search Polari

Latest Posts

  • Polari Magazine 2008-2014December 3, 2014 - 6:16 pm
  • Tearing Up Their Map: An Interview with LambDecember 2, 2014 - 2:45 pm
  • Future Islands • GigDecember 2, 2014 - 1:41 pm
  • Puppets with Attitude (at Christmas)December 1, 2014 - 6:30 pm
  • The Aesthetic of Voyeurism: Interview with Antonio Da SilvaDecember 1, 2014 - 1:25 pm
  • Broke With Expensive Taste • Azealia BanksNovember 28, 2014 - 3:59 pm
  • Royalty Strutting on an American College Stage: Miss and Mr. Gay ISU 2014November 27, 2014 - 2:59 pm
  • Bright Light Bright Light: Everything I Ever WantedNovember 26, 2014 - 11:15 am
  • Jaime Nanci And The Blueboys: ‘Toy’ TalkNovember 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm

About Polari Magazine

Polari Magazine is an LGBT arts and culture magazine that explores the subculture by looking at what is important to the people who are in it. It’s about the lives we lead, not the lifestyles we’re supposed to lead.

Its content is informed & insightful, and features a diverse range of writers from every section of the community. Its intent is to help LGBT readers learn about their own heritage and to sustain a link between the present and the past.

Polari is designed to nurture the idea of community, whether that be social and political, or artistic and creative. It is your magazine, whether you want to read it, or whether you want to get involved in it, if you're gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, or queer.

Polari Magazine is all these: it's a gay online magazine; it's a gay and lesbian online magazine; it's an LGBT arts and culture magazine. Ultimately, it is a queer magazine.

Latest Posts

  • Polari Magazine 2008-2014December 3, 2014 - 6:16 pm
  • Tearing Up Their Map: An Interview with LambDecember 2, 2014 - 2:45 pm
  • Future Islands • GigDecember 2, 2014 - 1:41 pm
  • Puppets with Attitude (at Christmas)December 1, 2014 - 6:30 pm
  • The Aesthetic of Voyeurism: Interview with Antonio Da SilvaDecember 1, 2014 - 1:25 pm
  • Broke With Expensive Taste • Azealia BanksNovember 28, 2014 - 3:59 pm
  • Royalty Strutting on an American College Stage: Miss and Mr. Gay ISU 2014November 27, 2014 - 2:59 pm
  • Bright Light Bright Light: Everything I Ever WantedNovember 26, 2014 - 11:15 am
  • Jaime Nanci And The Blueboys: ‘Toy’ TalkNovember 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm

Twitter

Tweets by @PolariMagazine

Archive

  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • July 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • May 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
© Copyright - Polari Magazine - Wordpress Theme by Kriesi.at
  • scroll to top
  • Send us Mail
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Join our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Website Privacy & Cookies