Tongues Untied (1989)

By the late 1980s, Black queer voices in American cinema were not so much underrepresented as they were almost entirely absent from mainstream screens. Tongues Untied, made in 1989 by filmmaker and activist Marlon Riggs, arrived as something of a rupture in that silence. Produced through Riggs's own company, Signifyin' Works, on a modest budget with no major studio backing, the film runs to just 55 minutes and yet manages to cover an enormous amount of ground, weaving together poetry, personal testimony, street footage, dance, and comedy. It is worth noting the context in which it was made and received: the film was broadcast in part by American public television stations but was pulled entirely by a number of PBS affiliates, citing its frank celebration of Black gay life. The controversy it provoked arguably said more about the cultural climate of the era than about the film itself.

Riggs, who was himself a gay Black man living with HIV at the time of production, drew on a community of collaborators rather than working as a solitary auteur. Chief among them was the poet Essex Hemphill, whose verse provides much of the film's spoken backbone, and performer Willi Ninja, a prominent figure in the New York ballroom scene. Brian Freeman and Michael Bell also appear alongside Riggs himself, who narrates and reflects on his own upbringing with a directness that refuses distance or detachment. The result sits somewhere between personal essay film and collective portrait, closer in spirit to some of the other documentary work reviewed on this blog, such as Candomblé in Togo (1972) and Nom Tèw (2009), in that it works from the inside of a community outward rather than observing from a comfortable remove. Riggs had made documentary work before Tongues Untied, but this is the film that brought him serious critical attention, and it remains the centrepiece of his career. He died in 1994, aged 37.

If you are coming to this expecting a polished but unremarkable talking-heads documentary, Tongues Untied will likely catch you off guard. The film moves through registers, from sombre to playful to furious, sometimes within the same scene. Its 55-minute runtime gives it a concentrated quality that longer films often lack, and Riggs's use of rhythm, both visual and spoken, gives it an energy that sits closer to performance art than to conventional non-fiction filmmaking. It is also, for what it is worth, a film rooted firmly in its moment, offering a window onto Black gay life in America at a particular and historically painful point in time. For those curious about what independent American documentary filmmaking looked like in 1989, this is a genuinely illuminating example, sitting alongside other films from that period reviewed here such as Sugar Cane Alley.

Quick review It's a documentary by Marlon Riggs that is part poetry, part interview about the experience of Black LGBTQ men in America. I honestly didn't think I'd like it much as poetry isn't usually my thing but it opened my eyes. It breaks my heart to think that there are people in the world that are persecuted, abused, attacked and hated purely for things they can't control like skin colour or sexuality. You get one life. I also learned there is apparently a whole repertoire of finger snaps that mean different things, which was pretty fun.

I think that reaction, that surprise at being genuinely moved by something you expected to bounce off, is often the most honest response a film can provoke. The finger-snapping section, the so-called "Institute of Snap!thology," is a real highlight and a reminder that the film never loses its sense of humour even when the subject matter is heavy. For me, that balance is what makes Tongues Untied stick around in the memory rather than fading the moment the credits roll. It is the kind of film that asks you to sit with it for a bit afterwards, and that is not always a comfortable thing. Worth every one of those 55 minutes.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 1989  | Watched: 2026-03-07

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Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for Tongues Untied (1989) on YouTube

Where to watch

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Stream: OVID
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Related on Movies With Macca

More from the 1980s: Nightmare City (1980) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Style Wars (1983) · Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980)
More documentary: Letter from Siberia (1957) · Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Style Wars (1983) · Here and Elsewhere (1976)