Tongues Untied + Affirmations + Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret) (Marlon Riggs, 1989-1993)

Monday the 27th of November 5pm, Richard Hoggart Building cinema

Marlon Riggs was an experimental documentary filmmaker, activist and poet, and all three of these at the same time. His films combine archival footage with performance, poetry and dance to express that which was not privileged with a stable position in the archive, from his defiant perspective as a gay Black man. In 1994 he died tragically young, at just 37, amid the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Before this, he created a vitally important body of work, including a number of feature-length documentaries and short films. His work stands as testament to struggles for sexual liberation, for racial justice, for recognition and survival.

We had to cancel a Marlon Riggs evening at the end of last academic year, but we’ve got our hands on a full, high-quality collection of his work. And so we’re rescheduling – this time with an updated programme.

Join us on Monday 27st November at 5:15pm (doors open at 5pm) in the Richard Hoggart Building cinema for Tongues Untied (1989) and two of his shorter films: Affirmations (1990) and Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret) (1993). The films are 55 minutes, 10 minutes and 38 minutes respectively, so expect the screening to finish around 7pm.

Tongues Untied (1989) was intended, in Riggs’ own words, to “shatter the nation’s brutalizing silence on matters of sexual and racial difference”. In the late 1980s, ‘Silence = Death’ became a rallying cry for AIDS activism against the lethal inaction of the US government. But in Riggs’ films it means more than this: the enforced silence of black gay men, jointly oppressed by heterosexual – including black heterosexual – society, but also by white gay society.

Affirmations (1990). From Tongues Untied outtakes (although this is a very different film), Riggs builds an archive of the hopes, dreams and desires of gay black American men in his moment. The film builds from these experiences into a powerful and focused call for freedom, recognition and inclusion.

Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret) (1993). Using music, poetry and personal testimony, five HIV-positive Black gay men discuss their personal confrontations with AIDS and how they fought the stigma, both external and internal, connected with the disease.