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Marlon Riggs (1957 - 1994)
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Names Index:
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 Boys'
Shorts (1993)
"Boys' Shorts showcases six of the finest
gay shorts produced in the last four years. This feature-length
program, spanning the work of filmmakers from the U.S., Canada,
England and Australia, exemplifies the quality, defiance and
self-affirmation of The New Queer Cinema. B. Ruby Rich, in her
ground-breaking article in Sight & Sound on The New Queer
Cinema, wrote: "These works are irreverent, energetic,
alternatively minimalist and excessive. Above all, they're full of
pleasure. They're here, they're queer, get hip to them."
" - From Frameline
RSVP Director: Laurie Lynd 1991 Canada 23 mins.
A powerful and moving portrait of loss, punctuated by the haunting
recording of La Spectre de la Rose, performed by Jessye Norman.
Anthem Director: Marlon Riggs 1990 USA 9 mins. A
collage of erotic images and a call to arms, with a feverish
hip-hop energy that celebrates the lives of African American men.
Relax Director: Christopher Newby 1991 Great
Britain 25 mins. An elegant film about one man's fears and
fantasies regarding HIV testing.
Billy Turner's Secret Director: Michael Mayson
1990 USA 26 mins. An upbeat, slickly produced, energetic comedy
about a young Black man coming out to his homophobic roommate.
The Dead Boys' Club Director: Mark Christopher
1992 USA 25 mins. A charming and poignant tribute to the '70s
world of promiscuity and glitter balls, firmly rooted in the
American cinematic tradition (it pays tribute to The Wizard of Oz)
and in gay life in the '90s. -- Anonymous Review
Marlon Riggs Filmography:
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Excerpt:
Marlon Riggs was known for making insightful and
controversial documentary films confronting racism and homophobia
that thrust him onto center stage in America's "cultural
wars." Born in Ft. Worth Texas on February 3, 1957, Marlon
graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard and received his masters'
degree from the University of California - Berkeley where he
became a tenured professor in the Graduate School of Journalism...
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The Fifth International Lesbian and Gay Film
Festival, Evergreen State College and The Capitol Cinema, Olympia,
Washington, May 3 - 5, 1992
BY Eric Gould
Filmmaker Marlon Riggs (creator of Tongues
Untied) addressed the multicultural debate, racism and
homphobia in his keynote speech, "Ruminations of a Snap
Queen," at the Fifth International Lesbian / Gay Film
Festival at Evergreen State College on May 4. His timing could not
have been more appropriate. While Rome was burning in response to
the Los Angeles police officers' acquittal for the beating of
motorist Rodney King, Riggs pointed out how little has changed in
racial attitudes in this country: "Look at what the officers
and jurors said about Rodney King -- he was regarded as a brutish
figure, which then justified the brutality. That is, control of
the 'savage' was justified." In light of the news media's
coverage of the upheaval, Riggs decried the use of inherently
racist language to describe African-Americans as 'thugs" and
"looters," adding, "Through language -- what it
says and and specifically what it doesn't say -- the
disenfranchised find identity in themselves..."
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This commentary was published in Current,
Aug. 12, 1991.
By Marlon Riggs
The vice squad of American culture was once
again on the attack. After being rebuffed in their attempts to ban
the homoerotic images of Robert Mapplethorpe and then the Todd
Haynes film Poison, and after suffering embarrassing
defeat in the "anti-obscenity" court case against the
black rap group 2 Live Crew, America's self-appointed media
watchdogs regrouped and found another, seemingly perfect target:
my experimental documentary, Tongues Untied, which
unabashedly celebrates the struggles, lives and loves of black gay
men in America...
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By Marlon Riggs
Excerpt:
Americans have always been more and at the same
time less than what we pretended. With the quickening approach of
the twenty-first century, greater numbers of us are giving
testament to this inescapable fact, challenging the cozy myths by
which America has been ritually defined. Who are we? Who are we
becoming? Who and what have we been? In the next century, can we
even continue to speak (could we ever?) of a collective
"we"? For the longest, of course, these questions had
simple answers...
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by Chuck Kleinhans and Julia Lesage
This interview was conducted by Chuck Kleinhans
in Oakland CA in November 1989, with Marlon Riggs shortly after
the premiere of Riggs' Tongues Untied at the American Film
Institute Video Festival. The interview was prepared in written
form by Julia Lesage.
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This page lists articles written about all of
Riggs' films, articles in books, magazines, and journals, and
more.
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Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
S T
U V
W X
Y Z
| Authors
Index | Scholars
Index |
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