In this experimental documentary, poetry, personal statements, rap and drama are united in opposition to ‘homo-phobia’ and racism. Marlon T. Riggs is a gay film-maker with wanted to take up a provocative position against the wave of conservatism in the United States which is threatening his (sub)culture.Marlon T. Riggs: ‘The watch-dogs of American culture have smelt blood again (Riggs means in particular “figures like the reverend Wildmon, James Kilpatrick and the rabid gay and race hater senator Jesse Helms”, the “mouth-pieces of the ultra-right and religious fundamentalists”). With my experimental documentary Tongues Untied, a frank homage to the struggle, life and love of black gay men, they thought they had their hands on the ideal prey. I made Tongues Untied with basically only one aim. I wanted to break through the degrading silence which makes it impossible to talk openly about issues such as race and sexuality. Despite, or maybe thanks to an contrived slander and censorship campaign, the documentary achieved its aim. The 55-minute video documents personal testimonies from the community — some restrained and poetic, others coarse and with unconcealed fury — and refutes the engrained myths of what it means to be black, gay, man and above all person’ (Catalogue of the Amsterdam Gay & Lesbian Film Festival).The struggle around the film concentrated on the question of whether it was suitable to be screened on television on the public, non-commercial, network. Tongues untied was accused of being ‘homosexual pornography, so the living room of theaverage American viewer will be transformed into a “homo-strip-tent”.’
