Brisbane Queer Film Festival and Institute of Modern Art bring you a special Pride Month screening: join us to celebrate the 30th anniversary of director Marlon T. Riggs seminal documentary on Black gay life in the 1980s, Tongues Untied (1989).

This film uses poetry, personal testimony, rap, and performance (featuring poet Essex Hemphill and others) to share accounts of the homophobia and racism that confronted Black gay men and continues to this day.

The stories are striking examples of discrimination: the man refused entry to a gay bar because of his colour; the college student left bleeding on the sidewalk after a gay-bashing; the loneliness and isolation of the drag queen. Yet they also affirm the solidarity of the Black gay male experience: protest marches, smoky bars, “snap diva”, humorous “musicology”, and Vogue dancers.

“My struggle has allowed me to transcend that sense of shame and stigma identified with my being a Black gay man. Having come through that fire, they can’t touch me.”—Marlon T. Riggs

Rating: 15+