Tongues Untied (1990)
Directed by Marlon Riggs
Marlon Riggs, with assistance from other gay Black men, especially poet Essex Hemphill, celebrates Black men loving Black men as a revolutionary act. The film intercuts footage of Hemphill reciting his poetry, Riggs telling the story of his growing up, scenes of men in social intercourse and dance, and various comic riffs, including a visit to the "Institute of Snap!thology," where men take lessons in how to snap their fingers: the sling snap, the point snap, the diva snap.
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What critics compared Tongues Untied to
Both times that I've watched Moonlight, I've been reminded of a work that precedes it by almost thirty years and that was made in an entirely different idiom: Marlon Riggs's Tongues Untied (1989), a personal video essay full of spoken-word poetry and monologues about desire, shame, and racism that declares "black men loving black men is the revolutionary act."