Although originally released in 1992, this is a newly remastered DVD version of Marlon Riggs’ short reflection on AIDS through the stories of five sero-positive black gay men. Riggs was an important “cultural agitator,” whose best known work Tongues Untied won numerous awards and stirred up homophobic reactions from both white conservatives and black activists. As he told Out/look magazine in 1991, “When nobody speaks your name, or even knows it, you, knowing it, must be the first to speak it. When the existing history and culture do not acknowledge and address you ― do not see or talk to you ― you must write a new history, shape a new culture, that will.”
Using poetry and music, as well as candid interviews, these men (Michael Lee, Joseph Long, Assoto Saint, Reggie Williams, and Donald Woods) speak frankly and movingly to the camera about their self-transformation in dealing with the impact of the AIDS epidemic on them personally and on their communities. This is an affordable addition to any library, though I would encourage purchasing Tongues Untied and Ethnic Notions along with it.
Reviewed by, Morgan Gwenwald
SUNY New Paltz
