Event

Snap: Tongues Untied

Eyes Wide Open Cinema is teaming up with the University of Sussex's Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence and Centre for American Studies, to bring you a season of pioneering American queer cinema at Fabrica Gallery.

Doors will open at 7.30 and the event will begin at 8.00. The film will have closed captions (English subtitles especially for D/deaf or hard of hearing attendees) and the event will have British Sign Language interpretation.

Director: Marlon Riggs. 1989. USA. 55 mins.

"Black men loving Black men is the revolutionary act"

Marlon Riggs's landmark essay film Tongues Untied is a bold vindication of black gay men in 1980s America. This semi-documentary explores the perspectives at the intersection of black gay life as its subjects confront racism, homophobia and social marginalisation. Mixing autobiography with music, performance and poetry (by Essex Hemphill and others), Riggs forged new artistic ground in the articulation of identity, culture and self-expression. Praised by black queer audiences for its authentic representation of style, and culture, as well its fierce response to oppression, Tongues Untied remains as powerful today as ever.

"My struggle has allowed me to transcend that sense of shame and stigma identified with my being a black gay man. Having come through that fire, they can't touch me." - Marlon T. Riggs

Image courtesy of Signifyin' Works.

Fabrica Gallery: https://www.fabrica.org.uk/

Venue Accessibility Information: https://www.fabrica.org.uk/accessibility

This project is supported by Film Hub South East with National Lottery funds distributed by the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN).