The signifyin' works of Marlon Riggs

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Summary

Employing a mix of documentary, performance, poetry, and music in his work, the transformative filmmaker Marlon Riggs was an unapologetic gay Black man who defied a culture of silence and shame to ...

Employing a mix of documentary, performance, poetry, and music in his work, the transformative filmmaker Marlon Riggs was an unapologetic gay Black man who defied a culture of silence and shame to speak his truth with resounding joy and conviction.

Ethnic notions: Covers more than one hundred years of United States history, which traces the evolution of deeply rooted stereotypes that have influenced anti-Black prejudice. Some caricatures have played a role in political and social conflicts concerning race.

Tongues united: Gives voice to communities of black gay men, presenting their cultures and perspectives on the world as they confront racism, homophobia, and marginalization.

Affirmations: An exploration of Black gay male desires and dreams.

Anthem: An experimental music video politicizing the homoeroticism of African-American men.

Color adjustment: A study of prejudice and perception traces over forty years of race relations in America through the lens of prime time TV entertainment. Revisiting such popular hits as Amos and Andy, Beulah, The Nat King Cole Show, Julia, I Spy, Good Times and Roots, viewers see how bitter racial conflict was absorbed into the non-controversial formats of the prime time series.

Non, je ne regrette rien: Through music, poetry and self-disclosure, five sero-positive Black gay men speak of their individual confrontation with AIDS.

Black is... black ain't: American culture has stereotyped black Americans for centuries. Equally devastating, the late Marlon Riggs argued, have been the definitions of "blackness" African Americans impose upon one another which contain and reduce the black experience

Long train running: Draws on a wealth of archival materials to trace the evolution of the Oakland blues, a unique musical style developed by Black shipyard workers in the Bay Area in the 1940s and '50s.

I shall not be removed : the life of Marlon Riggs: Provides a memorial to Marlon Riggs, the gifted, gay, black filmmaker who died from AIDS in 1994. It traces his development from a precocious childhood in the close-knit African American community of Fort Worth, Texas, through his political awakening at Harvard, to his final years as a courageous advocate for stigmatized people everywhere.

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