Tongues Untied + Anthem

These stylistically audacious works from Marlon Riggs blend music, poetry, and history into bold statements of black gay love and desire.

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Anthem (1991)
Dir. Marlon Riggs
9min

“Pervert the language… ” Kinetically edited in the style of a music video, this hip-hop-inflected experimental work issues a proud statement of black gay love and humanity.

Tongues Untied (1989)
Dir. Marlon Riggs
52min

Made to “shatter this nation’s brutalizing silence on matters of sexual and racial difference,” this bold and beautiful essay film combines poetry, performance, music, and montage into an at once personal and universal statement on the experiences of Black gay men and the persecution they face. Met with a firestorm of controversy that reached all the way to Congress, Tongues Untied remains a radical act of representation.