Tongues Untied (1990)
55m
Running Time
March 16, 1990Release Date
Plot.
Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs telling the story of his growing up, scenes of men in social intercourse and dance, and various comic riffs, including a visit to the "Institute of Snap!thology," where men take lessons in how to snap their fingers: the sling snap, the point snap, the diva snap.
Where to Watch.
Subs
Subs
Free
Currently Tongues Untied is available for streaming online, rent, buy or watch for free on: Criterion Channel, OVID, Kanopy
Streaming in:🇺🇸 United States
This Movie Is About.
Cast & Crew.
Marlon Riggs
Self
Brian Freeman
Self / Associate Producer
Michael Bell
Self
Kerrigan Black
Self - Lavender Lovelights Performer
Blackberri
Self - Lavender Lovelights Performer
Willi Ninja
Self
Djola Bernard Branner
Self
Eddie Murphy
Self (archive footage)
Donald Woods
Writer
Alan Miller
Writer
Joseph Beam
Writer
Chris Harris
Writer
Essex Hemphill
Writer
Reginald Jackson
Writer
Alex Langford
Composer
Steve Langley
Composer
Media.
Details.
Wiki.
Tongues Untied is a 1989 American experimental documentary film directed by Marlon T. Riggs, and featuring Riggs, Essex Hemphill and Brian Freeman. The film seeks, in its author's words to, "...shatter the nation's brutalizing silence on matters of sexual and racial difference."
In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".