Press

Press

Blackness, Gayness, Representation: Marlon Riggs Unpacks It All in His Films

New York Times, Critic’s Notebook, 2.6.2019

Blackness, Gayness, Representation: Marlon Riggs Unpacks It All in His Films ... For one thing, Riggs made them in the late 1980s and early 1990s, on video. And they’re short. The most famous — and notorious — of them, “Tongues Untied,” isn’t even an hour long. For another, this is 30-year-old work, and what it portends and breaks down and unpacks, what it depicts and imagines and celebrates, has largely been absorbed by the culture and by our politics. “Ethnic Notions” uses on-camera interviews with academics and an army of racist clips and old footage to explain, rigorously, how black has only recently been considered beautiful... Marlon’s Legacy