TONGUES UNTIED (1989)

Marlon Riggs’ 1989 film TONGUES UNTIED.

Today's post is by Larry Duplechan (@larry_duplechan_the_writer on Instagram) and is about one of the films featured in his latest book "Movies That Made Me Gay".

TONGUES UNTIED

1989. USA.

 Director: Marlon T. Riggs

Writers: Joseph Beam, Chris Harris, Essex Hemphill, Reginald Jackson, Steve Langley, Alan Miller, Marlon Riggs & Donald Woods

 Featuring: Marlon T. Riggs, Essex Hemphill, Brian Freeman, Willi Ninja, Michael Bell, Ben Callet, Gerald Davis, Kenneth R. Dixson, Larry Duckette, Gideon Ferebee, Brian Freeman & Gene Garth

TONGUES UNTIED (1989), Marlon Riggs’ landmark blend of video journaling, poetry reading, dance and talking-head interviews, is as much at home during Black History Month as Pride Month. If Longtime Companion represented the first generation of White gays lost to the AIDS pandemic, Tongues Untied remains as the film legacy of Riggs, poet/performer Essex Hemphill and writer Joseph Beam, all of whom died of AIDS complications within six years of the film’s release.

Larry Duplechan’s Movies That Made Me Gay is a movie memoir: a wonderfully well-informed, witty and acerbic take on iconic Hollywood films, film stars, and indie cult favorites, from a Lambda Literary Award-winning author who is also a lifelong movie fan. It’s also a touching and extremely readable personal memoir of growing up gay and Black in the early '60s; surviving the early days of the AIDS pandemic; the adaptation of his novel Blackbird into a feature film starring Mo'Nique in 2014, and much more.

Order Movies That Made Me Gay from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your favorite bookstore.

You can find TONGUES UNTIED streaming on Criterion (USA/Canada) and Kanopy (USA) – it’s also available on DVD/Blu-ray through Criterion and BFI.