Tongues Untied [SEP] director
Tongues Untied
Tongues Untied is a 1989 experimental documentary film directed by Marlon T. Riggs, and featuring Marlon Riggs, Essex Hemphill, Brian Freeman, among others. The film seeks, in its author's words to, "...shatter the nation's brutalizing silence on matters of sexual and racial difference." To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Awards, the film was selected to be shown at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016.
Content.
The film blends documentary footage with personal account and
American Way.
In the 1992 Republican presidential primaries, presidential candidate Pat Buchanan cited "Tongues Untied" as an example of how President George H. W. Bush was investing "our tax dollars in pornographic and blasphemous art." Buchanan released an anti-Bush television advertisement for his campaign using re-edited clips from "Tongues Untied" that violated U.S. Copyright law. The ad was quickly removed from television channels after Riggs successfully demonstrated Buchanan's copyright infringement.
In May, 2019, the Peabody Awards honored "Tongues Untied