Tongues Untied (1989) by Marlon Riggs
Saturday, August 29, 2026, 7:00 pm
Tongues Untied
& The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
Presented in association with Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Admission: $18 General / $12 Cinematheque Members
Event tickets here
SCREENING: The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement (2011) by Robin Fryday & Gail Dolgin; digital video, color, sound, 25 minutes. Exhibition file from Robin Fryday. Tongues Untied (1989) by Marlon Riggs (US); digital video, color, sound, 55 minutes. Exhibition file from Frameline Distribution.
TRT: 80 minutes
This screening is part of the BAMPFA series Made in Berkeley: The House That Zaentz Built
Co-presented with the Berkeley Film Foundation, this series explores the “storied site of filmmaking” at Berkeley’s Fantasy Studios, presenting “a selection of exceptional documentaries made at the Fantasy building across four decades.” Alongside Vivien’s Wild Ride and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, these films highlight the studio’s legacy as “a vital resource for documentary filmmakers in the Bay Area and beyond.”
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement (2011) by Robin Fryday & Gail Dolgin
This Oscar-nominated short follows an eighty-five-year-old African American veteran of the Civil Rights Movement as Barack Obama is elected president.
Tongues Untied (1989) by Marlon Riggs
Tongues Untied is about the silence that envelops the lives of Black gay men. This exhilarating work is a loquacious attempt to break free of the homophobia and racism that mute the possibilities for human fulfillment. Marlon Riggs creates a poetic pastiche that has the emotional uplift of gospel music and the sobering impact of reportage. The words of gay poets, personal testimony, rap tableaux, dramatic sequences and archival footage are woven together with a seductive palette of video effects. Riggs dares to speak the words that could conjure a life into being: “Black men loving Black men is the revolutionary act.” (Steve Seid)